Is Your Child Sexting?

I saw this month’s Reader’s Digest and my blood boiled to the surface. The headline screamed in big red letters:

Is Your Child Sexting?

Worse still, the headline was photoshopped onto an iPhone, as if it were the iPhone’s fault.

I’m pretty sick of the fear mongering that EVERY avenue of Old Media is using to make technology the bad guy. Blaming a cell phone for sexual texts between teenagers is like blaming pencils for sexy notes passed between teenagers. The fact that some teenagers are obsessed with sex has NOTHING to do with cell phones or SMS messaging. Unlike most adults, I REMEMBER what it was like to be a teenager. All I could think about was sex all the time. That wasn’t my Trapper Keeper’s fault. It wasn’t my Rubik’s Cube’s fault. Blaming the cell phone for sexual behavior among teens is just shoddy reporting and fear mongering. Bad form, Reader’s Digest, bad form.

I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything more from Reader’s Digest. Ever since its inception, it has pandered to old people. With jokes and quotes from a nearly extinct era, it won’t be long before Reader’s Digest becomes extinct as well. And when they do, they’ll probably blame it on cell phones.