“Text messaging is in the air, everywhere I look around, text messaging is in the air, every sight and every sound.”
The words “text messaging” sound much more suitable to me than “love” for John Paul Young’s song Love Is In The Air. We are living in an era of text messaging, wherein texting is used by all ages to make plans, to gossip, to say hello, to say goodbye, and so on. But at what expense? Has this taken a toll on human interactions, and has it taken a toll on school work/studies?
A survey of campus and its affiliates suggests some plausible answers to these questions, or at least gets a discussion going. Ironically, the majority of students were in the middle of texting when they were approached for the survey.
Eighty-five per cent of students surveyed answered “yes sometimes” to texting during class.
If one is texting, how is one paying attention to what is being said in class at that moment? Important words, phrases, or page numbers could be missed. Students pay dearly for tuition to listen to those three or two hour lectures.
Moreover, 90 per cent of students surveyed said spelling isn’t a concern while texting. Humans are creatures of habit. Spelling “b” for “be” or “wut” for “what” or “tomo” for “tomorrow” could cause students to spell things the “texting” way by accident in formal papers.
Ultimately, it just seems that we have turned into a bit of a lazy society. I’m guilty as charged. I use the latest spelling lingo in text messages, but I want to change that. I have been fortunate enough to have a well-rounded education, and I don’t want to take that fact for granted anymore.
In personal human interactions, 75 per cent of students surveyed said they primarily use texting to make plans with friends rather than talk on the phone. Eighty per cent said “yes” when asked if they text others while hanging out with a friend. One student even commented, “Yes, and I know it makes me a jerk.”
I’ve been in that situation myself, many times. If you’re hanging out with a friend one-on-one, how polite is it to text another friend and make plans and/or discuss the latest movies or gossip? Weren’t you with this “other” friend the day before while you were texting the friend you’re with now to make plans to get together with him/her… and now you’re with him/her yet you’re texting that other friend again?
If this sounds a bit confusing, it is! I don’t understand the logic behind it. If I’m having lunch with a friend I haven’t seen in awhile, I would rather converse with that person back and forth rather than wait while he or she looks down constantly and replies to his or her beeps or buzzes from the cell phone.
This is technology fatigue, this is taking advantage of what could be a very useful tool—but not at the expense of human intimacy and certainly not at the expense of listening to your professors.
Is it fair to say the more communication devices we are blessed with, the more isolated we become?
Not a texter?
The headline above asks: Are you addicted to text? The answer: As far as I can tell.
Tackle texting lingo at https://lingo2word.com/index.php
The writer is a student in the Faculty of Education