Texting is killing us slowly. How do I know this? It’s not because of my expertise in communication (and by “expertise” I mean “BA in Human Communication from a bible college”). Nor is it because of my love for properly speaking the English language. Rather, I notice texting provides a means to make us poor communicators.
Now, before I am hanged by the cordless revolution, I would like to be clear: I have a cell phone. I use a cell phone. I am in favor of clearer communication. Just like I am in favor of the light bulb, the internet, and the automatic loading shotgun.
However, I would like to point out the wisdom a mentor once told me. This wisdom came when I was living and working as an intern in a homeless shelter. After a few months of no cable, not a lot of money, and a kingdom of invisible bugs slowly taking over my skin, I began whining.
After complaining about learning that “following your faith is hard”, my mentor (who is a wise man with a long grey goatee) said to me, “Chase, life is a series of trade-offs.” He then went to tell me the decisions I made were making me into the man I would become and I would look back to see this time shaped my life for good.
This “trade off” seemed difficult at the time. But looking back, it has shaped me in ways that couldn’t be taught. I began to know the plight of the poor and the power of relationship better than I ever could in a classroom.
With texting, I believe the opposite to be true. We have traded convenience for connectivity, speed over accuracy, and grammar for “What’s the least amount of letters I can put here for you to understand me”.
Furthermore, we have reduced nonverbal communication (90% of all communication) to a few mere emoticons and lots of innuendo. Eye contact and gestures come second to staring at a phone screen. We unwittingly have traded the nuance of getting to know each other for only acquiring information.
If you do not believe this to be true, try having a conversation with a person who is fond of their phone and let them receive a text. Almost always their phone takes precedence. Furthermore, unless you are in a life or death conversation about emotional strife or illness, interruptions are not even acknowledged as rude anymore. Our lives have become like instant messenger: having multiple conversations at once for information’s, not relationship’s, sake.
Now, I realize that this probably won’t start an anti-texting revolution, complete with cell phone fires, psychedelic music, and experimental drugs. However, I beg you to consider, that the way you communicate, via speech, phone, or text MEANS SOMETHING. Everytime you make a choice to communicate, you are not only saying what you think is important, but you are also neglecting things you think are NOT important.
So the next time we talk I hope… uh oh… hold on… I think I just got a text…
