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I know we've had a debate about cell phones but I was reading something and I thought it would be interesting to see what your answers are.
1. Do you think cell phones should be allowed at schools?
Yes, but they must be turned off. It's just that some kids really need them to call their parents after school or something. They just shouldn't be on during school hours.
2. Do you act different online/while texting?
I think this is an interesting question but I don't know. . . . I think people who know me would have to figure that out.
3. Do you find it easier talking with friends or texting/chatting etc?
I like being with friends because you kind of get to see what they're thinking through their facial expressions and it's funnier.
4. If you have a fight with a friend is it easier to solve it through online activities or face to face?
Talking . . . I don't have much of a reason why.
submitted by Elizabeth M, age 11, Germany
(April 6, 2011 - 10:42 am)
(April 6, 2011 - 10:42 am)
1. Do you think cell phones should be allowed at schools?
I agree.
2. Do you act different online/while texting?
Hm... not much. I have more time to think of what I'm going to say online, so I'm much less likely to offend people, but that's about it. See, I often offend people in real life without meaning to or even really knowing why, so I think really carefully about what I say here, so it doesn't generally happen online.
3. Do you find it easier talking with friends or texting/chatting etc?
I don't text or visit chat rooms, but I find it easier to talk online than in real life.
4. If you have a fight with a friend is it easier to solve it through online activities or face to face?
Online. It's even more difficult for me to put my thoughts into words than usual when I'm upset, and I have trouble thinking straight and can't really control myself well, so I tend to burst into tears/yelling/both, no matter how hard I try not to. It's much better for everyone involved to just wait until I've calmed down and then e-mail each other.
(April 6, 2011 - 7:52 pm)
Top!!
(April 7, 2011 - 12:43 pm)
Also, I think I have more of a sense of humor here than in real life.
(April 7, 2011 - 5:15 pm)
1) Being homeschooled, I don't really know much about this issue, but I agree with you, Elizabeth.
2) I don't text, even though I have a cell phone...texting is really expensive. And no, I act just the same online as I do in real life.
3) Talking with friends. Online/electronic realtionships are fun, as far as they go (and that's why I'm here) but nothing beats face-to-face.
4) All my friends who I've had fights with are offline!
Kicy says otaw.
(April 7, 2011 - 5:40 pm)
I'm a little crazier in real life than I am here... I don't know why... That's just how I am!
(April 8, 2011 - 6:30 am)
1. Do you think cell phones should be allowed at schools?
I agree with Elizabeth
2. Do you act different online/while texting?
Erm, I think I'm TyperHyper, I'm a little more rambunxious on a computer than I am in RL, excapt around people I'm close to.
3. Do you find it easier talking with friends or texting/chatting etc?
I like being with friends, but it's easier to talk to people with e-mail or chatting.
4. If you have a fight with a friend is it easier to solve it through online activities or face to face?
I feel more comfortable with online, but I feel like you should sort it out in person.
(April 10, 2011 - 10:19 pm)
1. Do you think cell phones should be allowed at schools?
Lockers yes, pockets no. Not that I follow that myself, because I have an iPhone and therefore do the iPod thing with it. Mind you, mine is on silent and in airplane mode during class, so it amounts to more or less the same thing.
2. Do you act different online/while texting?
I don't act different, really. The only difference is that I'm a bit more articulate and/or coherent because I avoid the whole brain-runs-faster-than-the-mouth problem that I experience whilst talking face to face with someone (and also I have time to think of the appropriate word, so I don't end up saying "Does this do the thing?" or whatever). I am less sarcastic in written word though, because it's so much harder to pick up those sorts of nuances online and I would hate to accidentally offend someone. I suppose I also tend to be a bit more outgoing online, in that I'm more likely to start a conversation if I can write it down rather than having to look someone in the eye and talk.
3. Do you find it easier talking with friends or texting/chatting etc?
Texting, mainly because I have problem with eye contact.
4. If you have a fight with a friend is it easier to solve it through online activities or face to face?
(April 13, 2011 - 5:44 pm)
Oh, right, I forgot about having to think of the appropriate word! Right, because of that, there are a lot of pauses when I talk IRL, but you wouldn't know it from here.
Really, though, I'm not very different.
(April 14, 2011 - 12:35 pm)
I have that problem too. I say something like: "So in school we did this uh... uh.. thingy?" and then I start trying to find the right word and snap my fingers a lot. I use the word thing or Ding a lot. Thingamagig is also a well known word in my IRL vocabulary.
(April 15, 2011 - 6:17 am)
With me it's more like, "It's not, really, very... What's the word? Oh, right, good. It's not very good. Have you, seen my... book?"
Okay, it isn't quite that bad, but it's noticeable.
(April 15, 2011 - 4:43 pm)
I stutter, but with whole words instead of just letters. It's like... I know what I'm trying to say, but my brain gets caught on the one word (usually articles like "a" or "the"), but the signal doesn't get through to my vocal chords so I catch myself going the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-the- until I stop, take five seconds or so to reset, and finish whatever it was I was saying. It's incredibly irritating.
And do the snapping thing too, sometimes. In general I fluctuate wildly between being fairly articulate and being completely incomprehensible to anyone but myself and my friend Alison, who has the same problems. There are also certain phrases or words that I use in conversation but don't tend to use in writing, because I learned to write with ESSAYS!! and thus write more formally than I speak (most notably, a tendency to say that "it will be magical!" in regards to Exciting Things™). Also, because I can't edit my verbal output like I can my written output, my tendency to veer wildly off into non-sequiturs increases tenfold when I'm talking. Much to the dismay of some of my friends.
Which means I say stuff like this all the time: "I didn't like [blank] because it was pretentious. And the- the- the- [repeat ad nauseum] ...protagonist was a... thing. Git. A pretentious git. ...I'm hungry, is any one else hungry?"
(April 15, 2011 - 7:13 pm)
What's pretentious? And while I'm asking, you use the word procrastinate a lot. What does that mean?
I think a good synonym for pretentious is excessive. And procastinate means to put off, delay doing something. A procrastinator would say "Never do today anything you can put off until tomorrow."
You can look both up in a dictionary. Online dictionaries are very fast and handy.
Admin
(April 16, 2011 - 1:03 am)
(April 16, 2011 - 9:12 pm)
I occasionally do the stuttering thing, too, but more slowly. It's, "the... the.... the..." And I ramble on and on for even longer in real life than here, because I can't delete the excessive bits afterward. (Here is a situation where excessive does not mean pretentious, because it is unintentional).
(April 16, 2011 - 5:20 pm)
Though I don't stutter (the "the-the-the" phenomenon is more of something my dad does), I have a tendency to know exactly what I'm saying in my head, and then find I have no idea how to say it in words. Instead of snapping, I tend to flail my arms around. So something typical would go along the lines of, "So, you know, that book was so *flail flail* what's the word? It's, like, you know, um *flail flail flail* inspiring! No that's not the word. But something like that, you know?" It bugs me so much. My friend and I have had so many conversations where we express our annoyance at using the word "like" too much. It just makes us sound stupid, when we're not really. I am generally articulate in my brain! But I can't get exactly what I want out most of the time. And then, of course, I use excessive my classic excessive hands gestures. My friends are always making fun of me for that (good-naturedly of course) Oh well. At least I have enough time to use my thesaurus widget when I'm typing. :) My thesaurus is my best friend.
Spamboy agrees as well. He says, "uumm."
(April 24, 2011 - 2:17 pm)