14 DAY TRIAL // Parents are always confused by the way their kids talk and very few of them have anything to do with texting. In order to educate parents on text messaging, Cingular, now known as AT&T, is going to host a series of interactive TXT Bees at select high-schools throughout the country in the next couple of months, in cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Florida and Texas.
The TXT bees are supposed to bring parent and child together and to assist parents in understanding the way teens talk these days, which seems to be quite a mystery for most of them.
"Texting has become an entirely new forum for young people to communicate with each other," said Cristy Swink, executive director of messaging for the company. "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."
Aside from being fun, the competition can also prove to be, let's say, financially rewarding. Five parent-teen teams will compete for a $5,000 scholarship and a $5,000 donation to their high school from AT&T.
But the main goal of the competition is, as mentioned before, communication between parent and child. According to a recently conducted AT&T, sixty-four percent of the parents who use text messaging instead of calling their kids have said that texting made their kids easier to reach.
While calling to check up on them can be a little bit annoying for some teens, text messaging gives them more space while allowing parents to keep in touch with their children as often as needed.