I’ve always known my kids use digital communications gear (装置) a lot.But my cellphone bill last month really grabbed my attention.My son had come up to nearly 2,000 incoming text messages，and had sent nearly as many.Of course，he was out of school for the summer and communicating more with friends from a distance.Nevertheless，he found time to hold down a summer job and complete a college course in between all that typing with his thumb. I was even more surprised to learn that my son is normal.“Teenagers with cellphones each send and receive 2,272 text messages a month on average，” Nielsen Mobile says. Some experts regret that all that keyboard jabber is making our kids stupid，unable to read nonverbal cues such as facial expressions，gestures，posture and other silent signals of mood and attitude.Unlike phones，text messaging doesn’t even allow transmission of tone of voice or pauses，says Mark Bauerlein，author of a book called The Dumbest Generation：How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future. Beyond that，though，I’m not sure I see as much harm as critics of this trend.I’ve posted before on how I initially tried to control my kids’ texting.But over time，I have seen my son suffer no apparent ill effects，and he gains a big benefit，of easy，continuing contact with others. I don’t think texting make kids stupid.It may make them annoying，when they try to text and talk to you at the same time.And it may make them distracted，when buzzing text messages interrupt efforts to noodle out a math problem or finish reading for school. But I don’t see texting harming teens’ability to communicate.My son is as accustomed to nonverbal cues as any older members of our family.I have found him more engaged and easier to communicate with from a great distance，because he is constantly available via text message and responds with faithfulness and speed. 小题1:What does the underlined word “distracted” in the fifth paragraph mean?
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