Text Messaging is Taking Over.
Who has made
a phone call today?
Who has sent
a text message today?
Who has sent
over ten text messages today?
I can say
that text messages are slowly taking over if they haven’t already.
I was at one of my daughter’s performances about healthy
eating. I was surrounded by strangers. I try to have friendly conversations
with the people who sat next to me. One side I had a nice little old Spanish
lady and on the other side I had a guy who didn’t look much younger then me,
someone I could relate to. The little Old Spanish lady, let’s call her
Guadalupe, was really, really, nice. Guadalupe had a child in a bilingual class
and was performing along with my daughter. I still don’t know how I was able to
gather all that information from her, but I know that I had a great
conversation with her to know that stuff.
The young man on my opposite side was locked on his phone
the whole time. I would try to make whatever
little conversation I could with him, but all I would get back was a chuckle or
one-word answers.
“Is your child performing?”
“Yes”
“Are they on stage now?”
“No.”
“Is there really a child?”
Chuckles. Yes.
It drove me nuts, but I started to
notice it around me. Older people were chattering and the younger people were
glued to their phone. I started to think about it more.
Text messages are currently taking over
today’s society. Just a generation ago, it would be home phones. There are so
many things that could possibly be wrong with this. I will explore a few. Such
as social skills, confidence, and even over all distraction in everything!
I can understand why people text more.
It takes away all the confidence one needs for a phone call and lowers the
anxiety that is needed to prepare for the call. I think that it will destroy
the ability to have conversation with one another. Can you imagine what it
might be ten years from now?
“Hey Matt, it’s DR. Smith. The test results are back. You have an
STD. Frowning face, Frowning.”
Or “Hey Matt, you’ve been promoted. Happy face, happy face.”
Or even the character emojis
“Tombstone, tombstone, old lady.”
That could possibly indicate that Grandma died.
I understand that no one wants to be stuck in awkward conversations but
there are some things that are better said via phone call.
I also think that people who don’t send personal texts can be sending it
to multiple people. That could lead up to single people with overwhelm
responses from strangers. I think that people it would be more flattering to be
called especially from the amount courage it takes to call someone. I remember
cold calling people and trying set up dates.
“Hey Amy, this is Matt.”
“Hi Matt, this is Amy’s mom. I’ll go get her.”
“Shoot. “
“Hi Matt!”
“What are you doing later?”
“Nothing.”
“Okay, cool! I’ll talk to you later. “
I remember sweating profusely by the end of those conversations.
Distractions;
I was on my way to work and had plans on taking this beautiful girl out
afterwards. Yes, I asked her out over a phone call. I was sitting at a red
light on this beautiful Tuesday afternoon. Everything was coming out great.
Then it happened. I was rear ended by a driver who was responding a text
message. I was pushed into the guy in front of me. The texting-driver was very
apologetic but I wasn’t. He had just totaled my car. He took off before the
police came and my day was ruined. I didn’t make it to work or my date. Needless to say, neither did my car.
In conclusion, I feel that our generation is building a need for texting
and that is breaking down our ability to have spontaneous conversation with one
another and that is killing another brain cell with the technology that we
carry in our pockets. Do not get me wrong, I love my big phone but as human
beings, we need the ability to socialize with one another. I also feel that it
is taking our attention away from our everyday world and we forget to enjoy the
little things anymore. We should all be like Guadalupe.
Thank you.
