VaHigherEd.com

“Nothing in life is good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

William Shakespeare had that one right.  I think about that quote a lot - especially when people recoil from something new.  Remember when Elvis and the Beatles, and their Rock ‘n Roll music, would be the end of us all?  How many parents now wish it were that music and not today’s hard rock and rap pouring from the ear buds of their kid’s Ipod?

But there’s a new wrinkle in the debate about something new that our children have and we didn’t at their age:  text messaging.

As you can read in this story, college students in Virginia are reacting slowly and reluctantly to signinig up for safety-oriented text messages being offered at their college or university.

Why? Do students feel invincible?

“I think there’s part of an element of that going on,” VCU’s Ohlinger said.

Matthew Stuckey, a VCU senior from Richmond, said he had a different reason for not signing up for the alerts.

“I just haven’t gotten around to it,” he said yesterday as he studied in a courtyard between classes. “I probably will do it — eventually.”

It’s enough to make you wonder if complacency has already replaced the sick feeling in the bottom of students’ stomachs everywhere after the Virginia Tech shooting last April.

It’s not like text messaging is out of style.  As this article shows, teeneagers are texting at the most inappropriate times:

Fairground Road is kind of scary in general, especially since some people — many of whom drive very large vehicles — seem to think it’s Goochland’s own Autobahn. Not smart considering the number of blind curves, side roads and the constant threat of deer determined to increase your auto insurance. But last week I saw something truly terrifying: A teenager text messaging while driving Fairground Road. I figured that the odds of the kid wrecking before he got to Route 522 were about five to one.

So, just to recap here:  When it comes to signing up for free text messages, which carry potentially life-saving information, the students “will do it — eventually.”  But these young people have no problems texting while operating a motor vehicle on a dangerous road.  Hmmm…okay?

Posted by Jeff Kraus