Why younger generations need traditional media

The other day I was talking with an acquaintance who told me that her children had recently starting texting her with their cellphones. I asked her if they knew how to actually use the phone to call her if they needed help and she told me they did. She also told me that she had purposely spent time explaining to them the difference between texting and calling and when each type of communication would be useful and when it wouldn’t be. I wish more people educated younger generations in that way.

While all the new technology is useful for communication, it is important to remember that sometimes no amount of texting will really be that useful if you are in a situation where you are lost or in danger. And sometimes you need to have a conversation that can’t occur via email or text, because there’s too much to say that won’t be captured in such limited mediums.

Another acquaintance recently told me that her son shipped off to basic training. He’s been learning the fine art of hand writing letters to his family. Apparently he enjoys it a lot and has found that it makes him spend time really considering what he will write. Pretty valuable lesson, especially in an age where you can quickly type off a 140 character message without thinking about it.

New media is great, but so is traditional media and teacher younger generations to appreciate it can also teach them the value of context and knowing what medium to use and when to use it. And sometimes that could make a big difference, especially in a situation where calling on the phone will get you a lot further than updating your facebook status.