Only connect

Did you know (I found out in my counseling seminar today) that today's teens suffer the same level of stress, give or take a few breakdowns, as did 1960's mental patients?

Scary, isn't it?

And I don't think they are too well equipped to handle some of these stresses. In this case, technology may not be their friend, because it doesn't give them communication skills they need to create healthier relationships.

In a small group chat today, another student told me that her sister, eight years or so younger, arrives at family parties, phone in hand, and spends much of the party texting her "friends" -- but not a lot of time physically communicating with them.

I was surprised (why?) to see that at my daughter' s 16th birthday party, some of the kids just sat there, checking their messages.

How will they operate in college? In the workplace? In relationships?

What about you? How willing are you to reach beyond your technological comfort zone? How much easier to text or email than to make a phone call?

I am rather dazed right now. I don't have much reserve. My level of flexibility is low. I prefer, at the moment, to be alone.

But I know that eventually I will reach out again -- and I won't do it solely via email (or solely through this blog to my readers).

I'll pick up the phone. I'll set up a dinner date. I'll go to the movies. Even now, I am fighting myself, and making those social connections -- because I know the value of them. It is part of my history -- and part of yours, I'm guessing.

But what about our kids? Who will teach them, support them, encourage them, bind their wounds when they try and don't succeed, applaud them when they make a new friend -- if we do not?