Electronic Familiarity Breeds Contempt.

Let me preface this by stating, Yes. Yes, I do read my son's text messages from time to time. He is 16, he lives under my roof and his cell phone is on his father's plan. I will not apologize for this, ACLU.

But what I have noticed is that teenagers (and pre-teens, too...yes, I read my 12-year-old daughter's text messages occasionally) say things via texting that they would NEVER say to each other face-to-face. The messages reflect a degree of intimacy that is pretty risque, even by today's standards.

When my son was 15, he had a short-lived relationship...he used to wax poetic about his girlfriend's hips, tell her he was there for her when she was feeling down...he was downright eloquent at times...and sometimes I wanted to slap him for his cheeky comments. When I brought this up to him (without revealing I had read his phone) he fought me on it for a minute...then probably thought about some of his recent texts and finally agreed.

If I had to guess from just reading his text messages, I would have made the assumption that he had already gotten pretty far with this girl. Not 100% sure, but I don't think they did much more than kiss.

People also say things to each other via email that they would never have the balls to say to their face. Especially at work. The emails are usually not sexual in nature, but they can be terse, condescending and downright rude at times. It's much harder to be snotty when you are looking someone in the eye. I'm constantly telling people to stop typing, get up from their desk, walk over and TALK to the person. It stops so much of the petty back and forth that email seems to foster.

LOL.