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South Jersey grandmother creates song, music video encouraging teens to put down phones
FOX 29's Shawnette Wilson has more on a South Jersey grandmother who created a song to encourage teens to kick the cell phone habit.
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - "I've written a lot songs but I was compelled to write this one," Jeanie Conti-Speckmann said.
Conti-Speckmann isn't your average grandma or Nona as her grands affectionately call her. Jeanie was frustrated seeing her grandchildren always on their phones and instead of lecturing them about it she came up with an idea.
"I'm tired of all the texting. It's your voice I want to hear," Jeanie sang in a video featuring her grandchildren and a song she wrote called "Phone Down."
Jeanie says it's something almost every adult can relate to if they have kids in the family.
"All you see is everyone holding on to the phone. They're not looking at each other, there's not communication, they're disengaged and it's sad," she said.
Jeanie sprung the idea for her song onto her grandchildren while they were all together at a graduation party.
"She pulls the song out of her pocket just has it there and starts singing to everybody at the table and that's how we got the introduction," 23-year-old Marco said.
"I see the point. I think that with the fun of the video we were having fun as a family putting it together," he said.
Marco says when they first got cellphones Nona would have them drop them in a basket when they came to her house. He says it was tough at first.
"You could tell there were some disgruntled faces amongst the cousins," he laughed.
Jeanie says making the video came easy. She's been performing since she was 2-years-old.and he's proud of her latest work. The "Phone Down" video is posted on Youtube with more than 800 views so far.
"I'm trying to tell people to remind them how important it is to spend the time with their kids and grandkids because there are memories you make not being on the phone all the time," Jeanie said.