I recently had to trek over to the dreaded Sprint store because my Motorola Q decided to stop functioning. After I had selected my newest distraction, the Samsung Instinct aka Bush League I-phone, the surprisingly helpful sales associate did a cursory review of my account.
To my surprise, he informed me that I had only used 200 minutes of talk time during the previous month. This was shocking to me considering in my hay day I was averaging about 1,500 minutes per month. Then I realized… I don’t use my phone to talk to anyone anymore, I simply text them. If I can’t say it via text, I probably don’t say it.
I find it incredible that the innovation of text messaging has completely altered the way that I communicate with the outside world. The only person I still chat with on the phone is my Mom, and that’s because she’s a laggard and hasn’t discovered texting yet.
Last week I read an article on the web about the communication revolution and its effects on personal relationships. The author suggested that the increased use of e-mailing and texting instead of speaking in person or on the phone would have a severely detrimental effect on peoples’ relationships with others.
This does not bode well for my future.
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You raise a very interesting issue, Mariah. This reminds me of an article that recently appeared in the Atlantic Monthly titled, "Is Google Making us Stupid?" The author (Nicholas Carr) argues that our heavy reliance on the internet (e.g., blogs such as this) is altering the wiring of our brains and making it more difficult for us to focus on and absorb information presented in traditional text format (e.g., newspapers and books). Here is a link to the article: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google
Taking it to its logical conclusion, teenagers today who now rely on texting, facebook, etc to interact as opposed to face-to-face interaction are most likely preventing essential social development skills from forming that could diminish their ability to communicate with real live people. They leave for their first year of undergrad without knowing how to interact with anyone much less the diverse group of persons around them.
I wrote a paper on this issue in my undergrad. I addressed the same issue and wanted to explore the affect online communication has on relationships. First, I wanted to find out if online communities shift the skills needed to attract a partner, if skills in writing and general computer knowledge is more important than appearance and classic well-documented pick up lines. Second, online dating open up for a much bigger pool of potential partners. I wanted to find out what affect it has on our relationships, if it shifts from monogamy relationships to polygamy relationships. The lessons I learned was that people who have success offline, are also the people who have success online. The main reason is that people postpone judgments until they meet face to face. For that same reason, relationships do not seem to appear more polygamy because people meet online. I think it was interesting. It tells me that people form incomplete relationships online, they postpone several important judgments and mechanisms until they meet face to face. I am sure it will affect future relationships and society a great deal in years to come. My research could not conclude on anything, but proposed a hypothesis for further research. (For some reasons, the teachers at the time rejected my research method.)
I listened to a similar dialogue on NPR about two weeks ago. There was great concern that the younger generation is growing up without an adequate level of social skills. Some examples that were cited were the lack of ability to make and keep eye contact as well as concerns about usage of grammar and punctuation. It was pretty in depth and I encourage people to try to track it down at www.npr.org if you are interested in the subject matter.
However, I am in the same camp as Mariah and text much more than I talk. While I know there are pros and cons to this, I feel that the ability and willingness to text has improved my communications with friends and family. There is no obligation associated with it and we tend to communicate more frequently than the days before texting. I know there are issues associated with the interpretation of written communications and that may be a real hazard, but for now, it makes my life easier!
I can attest to grammar portion of Sarah's comment. I'm a TA for marketing 300 where I graded both two-page discussion papers and longer term papers. I was shocked by the writing quality of these papers. They were riddled with grammatical errors and illogical arguments. One term paper had a page with no periods and an ampersand symbol in place of the word 'and'. The good news, however, is after talking with them about my expectations, they immediately fixed the errors. I don't believe younger generations are becoming stupid as a result of texting; I do believe it is making them lazier.
The reason no one is talking anymore is because it's too slow and error-prone. Just think how painful it is to give someone your address by phone...dial #..ring a few times...exchange pleasantries...get to the point...other person takes a minute to find a pen and some paper...painfully repeat yourself a couple times...confirm...say goodbye...and that's the best case scenario. Half the time the other person won't even pick up and who knows when they'll check their voice mail! I think the best explanation for the communication revolution is that most of time we just need to communicate one-way and text is the better platform for this. The next generation is getting more efficient. In my opinion that's smart.
Prior to returning to school, I did not use text messaging. However, it is now a regular part of my day. I find it to be a quick and efficient way to communicate. However, there are certain people I prefer to talk to by phone for numerous reasons. My mom and sister both still use pre-paid cell phones that are not equipped with text messaging capabilities. Also, our conversations average around an hour in length. Texting would become painful. Also, my closest girlfriend and I still chat over the phone. We have too much to say to each other to leave to texting.
I have noticed that I am becoming lazier in my writing, especially with e-mail. I find myself abbreviating words. I hope once I return to work, I am able to speak and write coherently.
if you look at asian markets such as korea, japan, and china, you will be more surprised how people are engaged in texting, html messaging, video, internet.. cellphones almost do everything of communication...