Is The Convenience Worth The Cost?

Has texting caused you and your friends to spend less time actually talking to each other? Has it damaged your ability to communicate in person? Has it helped you stay in touch with family and friends more than you would have otherwise? I feel that technology has its advantages and disadvantages when it comes to communicating with others.

Texting is very impersonal and not a substitute for real conversations because you cannot see the other person’s expressions and emotions. Texting each other is also not the same as having a real conversation because the definition of a conversation is “the informal exchange of spoken words” according to the dictionary. You cannot tell if they thrilled, uncomfortable, or sad because you cannot hear them. People lose interest in each other without real conversations (Psycentral’s article 5). This leads to a decline in real friendships or relationships. Sure you can text 50 different people at once, but you cannot replicate a real conversation with any of those people. The more you text your friends, rather than really conversing with each other, the more you’re isolating yourself from real

Nonverbal communication plays an essential role in any conversation. Individuals who are aware of nonverbal actions during conversations can more effectively interpret what is being communicated.

Today, from toddler to senior citizen uses phone. The most used applicable applications in phone are the text or SMS. I wonder how many people even know what does SMS stands for. We use the short message service to communicate easily because it’s short and quick. The two articles “2b or not 2b” by David Crystal and “We Never Talk Anymore: The Problem with Text Messaging” by Jeffrey Kluger both talks about communicating through texting and our use of language. Crystal is in favor for texting and Kluger is against texting. I agree with Kluger when it comes to this topic, I feel learning how to have a conversation face to face is very important. “I talk to kids and they describe their fear of conversation,” says Turkle. “An 18-year-old I interviewed

Everyone wants to stay connected in each others lives by never missing a beat. More like never missing a text message in this day and age. Life is constantly finding its way to become full of responsibilities with little time to take a break as it is. Texting my family and friends is easier to respond to when I 'm taking care of my daughter and studying for school. Even a phone call seems better so I can multitask, cleaning the house or driving while talking on the phone. Communication is an essential key and important human need. By using technology, there is a deeper connection to communicating than some acknowledge.

As this article state about the cons of using modern ways of communication and lacking of feelings, I feel that at some extend, I agree with author’s opinion. As Jim Taylor points out, “Kids want to be hugged and touched; they don’t want to be texted. There’s basic need to fill that social bond” (Johnson, Chandra), this explains the truth. We can not always express the feelings of sympathetic and empathetic through texting or phone call. This modern technology did change our lifestyle. In addition, people do use texting or other messaging applications to avoid complications talks instead of talking to another person face to face and also create a language barrier between them.

We hear a lot these days about texting - the ability to get/send a text message from/to anyone, anywhere, via wireless networks and some kind of portable device, which might be a fancy pager, a digital cellphone or a palmtop computer. The technology is here, though it doesn't work everywhere yet. We could argue about how affordable or reliable texting is, but we can't deny it exists and will probably become more widespread. But is this a good thing? In my opinion, there are certain ways in which texting affects many teenagers.

Society may say that texting is bad and causes kids to become disengaged from the world, and ruining literacy skills. However texting is the most common form of mobile communication. It has opened many doors forcing schools to incorporate technology into their academic work instead of ban it. Texting is here to stay and has a number of good and bad benefits.

When most of us think about communication, many of us immediately imagine ourselves talking to someone or writing them a message. Most of us do not actively think about the equally or more likely, much more important nonverbal cues that are very much a part of how people perceive our chosen messages. The main types of nonverbal communication cues that I focused on while I was observing my subjects were:

Any communication interaction involves two major components in terms of how people are perceived: verbal, or what words are spoken and nonverbal, the cues such as facial expressions, posture, verbal intonations, and other body gestures. Many people believe it is their words that convey the primary messages but it is really their nonverbal cues. The hypothesis for this research paper was: facial expressions directly impact how a person is perceived. A brief literature search confirmed this hypothesis.

Texting has many effects. When I think of texting many dangerous and unethical behaviors come to mind. We all know texting has a brief history, many people prefer texting to talking on the phone, and texting has its own problems when misuse. When we are texting communication is lost and is in considered of others and mostly affecting people’s health.

How does electronic communication affect our social behavior as a whole and our psychological development? Communication is an important part of life. We all do it in a daily basis whether it’s face-to-face or through electronics. Communicating through the internet helps us as it decreases a bit in the time that it would usually take for us to keep in touch with our loved ones. However, it also takes away from the face-to-face interaction we would have with them. One of the most popular ways that people communicate electronically is through text messaging. Just like all the other diverse ways that allows us to communicate electronically such as email, instant messaging, social media etc., text messaging affects us both positively and negatively. Actually we are affected both positively and negatively with just the ability to communicate and interact with others electronically. Electronic Communication tends to affects us socially and psychologically; Socially: in a way that it allows us to keep in touch with our loved ones, especially those who live far from us, however it distracts some of us from our priorities; Psychologically: one can be affected in a

The main cause of the texting craze is the ability to send and receive quick messages. It is simpler than making a phone call and getting caught up in a conversion when your time is limited. It also allows you to share and respond instantly so there is a sense of always being connected to peers. Texting has become more popular than talking on the phone or even face to face. So much so that “texting has become the way that adolescents forge social bonds, and texting between adolescents often serves to promote social cohesion in peer groups”

This also helps us hide who we are and might show the people we text, who we want to be. Through mobile messaging you might sound adventurous but when you do meet someone that you have been communicating with through text, you might seem shy and awkward. It might surprise the both of you, how different real-life conversations are compared to text messaging. But this might not necessarily be a bad thing as Turkle says:

The “Effects of Text Messaging on College Students’ Perceptions of Personal Health” article just like the two articles all seem to say that texting can have a negative effect on students. “Even though most college students agree that face-to-face communication is more helpful than a text message, college students’ behaviors still favor text messaging.” (Massimini &