}

Monday, March 12, 2007

Cd U plz sav me?

There are certain inevitable signs that you’re getting older: Cops start looking very young, you find yourself saying things your parents used to say and, especially, you begin sentences with “kids these days…”


After complaints about young people’s music, the second most complained about thing is how young adults—teens in particular—seem glued to their cellphones, thumbs furiously flying as they send text messages to friends who, in some cases, may be close enough to, you know, speak to.


But then sometimes there’s a story to make you realise that “oldies” should maybe cut the “young’uns” some slack.


Vicky Feek, a 16-year-old student, was on her way to her part-time job when her car went off the road, landing upside down 3.5 metres down the bank, haning partly on some tress near the Whakatane River. She found her cellphone, then tried dialling the police on 111. There wasn’t enough cellphone coverage for a phone call.


So, she sent a text message to her best friend, Bianca Purser, asking her to ring police. Purser did, and after 45 minutes, Feek was found. She suffered only bruising.


Maybe young people’s flying thumbs are in a kind of emergency training. Parents would hope that their own children are as quick thinking as Vicky Feek was. And the rest of us—well, maybe we should be a bit more relaxed about what “kids these days” do.

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