Text messaging and your teenager: how it can help parents keep the lines of communication open with their teens.

OMG! Teenagers prefer text. How can parents use this fact to improve communication with their teens?

“For a teenager to send thousands of text messages a month is not unusual,” John Johnson, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless told the Washington Post, (in a 5/20/07 article by Margarent Webb Pressler) causing the company to roll out an unlimited texting plan. Its highest bundle of free text messages -- 5,000 a month -- wasn't enough.

In order to study trends in teen texting, Cingular Wireless enlisted the help of Psychologist Dr. Ruth Peters and released a survey indicating that 63% of parents who use text messaging believe it improves their communication with their children. Peters reported some reasons why texting improves communication with teens:

Quick Answers

In an age when it's difficult to catch up with busy teens and parents, texting is a great way to get fast answers to questions like "What time will you be home?" or "Do you need a ride to work?"

Response Time

Teens can easily text their parents in a discreet brief conversation while they are spending time with friends- avoiding the embarrassment of having a verbal conversation.

Spare the Drama

Tone of voice in a voice conversation tends to carry weight- teens might become defensive or avoid returning calls. Texting takes the tone out of an information exchange.

Be Cool

By using text messaging, parents can communicate in the style their teen prefers, and become more hip in their eyes. For example, a parent might send a text to her daughter on a blind date asking how the date is going: “Is he a frog or a prince?”

Practice Makes Perfect

If emotion surrounds an issue, parents can write things out before actually saying them to their kids to help edit their thoughts. By making parents think about it more, texting removes explosive emotions from potentially charged communications and situations

Space Invader

Texting is a good way to double check a teen's whereabouts without nagging.

Teen Bonding

Texting is a great way to strengthen parent-teen bonds. Send them a text wishing them good luck before the school play audition, or let them know you are thinking of them if they were concerned about a difficult test or a grade.

“It's a form of silent communication; they can do it whenever, they can do it fairly secretively," said Rob Callender, trends director for Teenage Research Unlimited in a recent Washington Post report. In a study of teens, he said, TRU found that texting is the second most popular use for cellphones, right after using them to check the time.

Read about 10 Safe Driving Tips for Teens

Read about Teen Culture: Myspace or Yours?

Read about Parent-Teen Contracts.