I have a love/hate relastionship with texting. I love it because its a surefire way of getting my two oldest sons' attention and I loathe it because I'm not very good at it.

I want to spell things correctly and use punctuation. I don't understand what most of the abbreviations mean or why my 19-year-old ends every text with LOL. Like, “We r out of food lol” or “Do u have chapstick lol” or “Can I come by and do laundry lol”

Both boys r on, I mean are on txt (text!) only plans, so I'm trying to make peace with it. U knw wht i mean?

How often do you send or receive text messages?

On his Facebook wall, Councilman Mike offers this formula for dealing with teen-age girls: “Teenage girls + normal adolescent growing pain drama + text messaging = Escalation of insidious self-esteem challenges and overboard emotional responses. (I'm beginning to loathe text messaging.)” I raised my daughter in the pre-text era. (She graduated from Lake City High in 2004.) So I don't have experience in dealing with texting and teen girls. How about you?

Question: What was the biggest challenge in rearing a teen daughter that didn't exist in “your day”? And/or what advice would you give parents who are raising teen daughters?

The wildfire popularity of texting and tweeting is shoving a whole generation of telecommunications lemmings off the cliff of basic knowledge, to perish below on the sharp rocks of sloth and ignorance. I read a lot, and I write a lot. I’ve come to understand the rules of language, grammar, punctuation and spelling. And I break those rules constantly. But at least I know they’re there. Notice I didn’t say “their they’re” or “their there?” That’s what I’m talking about. If you want to see evidence that our society is quickly sliding into the abyss of boneheaded duncery and moronic disregard for the basic rules of English, take a look at Facebook or craigslist/Bob Wire, New West. More here.

Question: Do you agree w/New West columnist Bob Wire that texting, Facebook, Craigslist, etc., have made us a nation of morons?

Oprah Winfrey and Idaho traffic safety officials are asking drivers to make a commitment today to hang up and drive. The day, dubbed the “No Phone Zone Day,” is an awareness campaign about texting and driving. Digital message signs along Idaho highways will carry the safety message, “Driving/texting? Hang up. Arrive alive,” according to the Idaho Transportation Department. Idaho does not yet have a law against driving and texting/Spokesman-Review. More here.

DFO: I did something I’ve never done before, Thursday: I carried on a cell-phone conversation from the office after work all the way home and beyond. I rarely talk on a cell phone while driving. I wanted to see how distracted I’d be. I tried to be extra alert. But I wasn’t as alert as I usually am while driving. I won’t do it often.

Question: How often do you talk on the cell phone while driving? Have you ever had any close calls, driving-wise, as a result?

A motorist talks on his cell phone while waiting in a traffic backup at the corner of Lincoln and  First Avenue in Spokane.

“When New Jersey tells you not to use a handheld cellphone to talk or text while driving, they mean it.

In the 23 months since New Jersey’s ban of talking or texting on handheld cellphones, police have written 224,725 citations, according to the NJ Star-Ledger—adding up to about four percent of the state’s total moving violations, not counting drunk driving, during that period, and by far the most any state has written so far.” More here.

Have you or anyone you know received a ticket for texting or talking on a cell phone while driving?

Idaho’s got bipartisan legislation in the works to ban texting while driving, a move roughly two dozen states already have made. Sen. Les Bock, D-Boise, proposed similar legislation this year, but now he’s got a high-profile co-sponsor on board: House Transportation Chairwoman JoAn Wood, R-Rigby. “I’ve ben thinking about it for quite some time,” Wood told Eye on Boise. “Maybe it’s because I’m not very good at it anyway - there’s no way that I could do that and drive. I see kids coming out of the high school and doing it, and it really bothers me that they’re on the road and doing it.” / More here at Eye on Boise

Question: What have you seen people trying to do while driving?

If you love somebody and you want to say so other than to her face, is it classier to do that by deliberate illiteracy? Or is it cooler to use that same textable cell phone to call her instead and let her relish the sound of your actual voice trembling with affection and passion? Apparently that is an ignorant question. I suspect the texters are caught up in the game of showing off how much you can say in the fewest letters possible, providing they use the same style of condensed fadspeak that everyone else is using. In other words, texting is like jeans. If you don’t use the same style as everyone else, you’re not with it/Bill Hall, Lewiston Tribune. More here.

Question: How are you in adapting to the latest electronic gadgets and means of communication, like texting?