This stuck out as especially disturbing:
Early on, Savannah’s parents agreed that they had to set rules. First, they banned cellphone use at the dinner table and, later, when the family watched television together, because Mr. Pence worried about the distraction. “They become unaware of your presence,” he said.How has watching TV become family-togetherness time? Mr. Pence, if your children are watching TV and not texting, they're probably not thinking about your presence anyway. Heaven forbid that children be distracted from television with social interactions!
Pence now allows his daughter to text while they watch TV because otherwise she would just leave and text somewhere else.
This was also kind of depressing:
“Texting is in between calling and sending and e-mail,” he explained while taking a break from study hall. Now he won’t even consider writing a letter to his mother, Jan. “It’s too time consuming,” he said. “You have to go to the post office. Instead, I can sit and watch television and send a text, which is the same thing.”I don't really care about the preservation of the written snail mail letter. They're nice, but not really important to me. My problems:
- A text message is not anywhere near a letter (or most emails, for that matter). It rarely consists of more than a couple sentences.
- Again with the television thing. "Oh no, I can't make time to communicate with my mother because I have to watch TV!"
