WTF Dept. Cingular Wireless Launches TXT Bee Program

ATT Cingular Wireless has announced a new "bee". I have heard of spelling bees, now there is a TXT Bee… I am calling a WTF! Events will be held in Florida, Atlanta, Chicago, LA, and Texas this spring. Kids can win $10,000 in scholarship and donation money and the goal is to help parents also learn more about texting.

"Texting has become an entirely new forum for young people to communicate with each other," said Cristy Swink, executive director of messaging, Cingular Wireless. "To many parents, this new language of text messaging may often seem irrelevant or appear to be unfathomable. Through our TXT2 Connect campaign and TXT Bee events, we are helping parents interact with their kids through text messaging in a fun environment. For some parents, this may be the first time they've ever tried to text. Once they see how simple it is, we are hopeful it won't be the last."

From their release:

Contrary to what parents might think, kids want to communicate with parents – on their own terms. With text messaging, parents can connect with teens in a more convenient way. Text messaging allows parents to get quick answers to important questions, give their teen independence while still staying connected and enter their child's world by using the child's preferred mode of communications. Texting gives kids more space and allows parents to keep in touch as often as necessary.

Sixty-three percent of parents who use text messaging believe that it improves their communication with their children, according to a recent Cingular survey on text messaging and parents conducted by Mediathink. In addition, 65 percent of parents who text message say they communicate more frequently with their children when they are away from home and 64 percent said that texting made their kids easier to reach.

Maybe for quick things like "come home by 4pm" or "bring home dinner" will work but I wonder how fast we will move into bigger discussions with texting. Can you just imagine using texting for things between parents & kids such as: IM Prego, IM Drunk, i h4t3 y0u, etc. I think parents and kids speak so little today, do they really think texting will help? So now kids and parents will see each other even less and assume texting will take the place of a sit down discussion?