Massaging Is Ruining Our Society

Kate Hafner’s article, “Texting May Be Taking a Toll” claims that texting is an issue to teenagers around the world. As an illustration, Hafner starts the article by identifying that teenagers send a drastic amount of texts in their everyday lives. according to the Nielsen Company, “American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008”(1). This is just one of the examples of many that portrays teenagers around the world send many text messages. Along with teenagers sending many texts a day, hafner also shows in this article that texting is affecting teenager's life in many different ways for example, preventing teenagers' way of becoming independent. Just as professor Turkle presented,

In the narrative The Flight from Conversation by Sherry Turkle, she says in this age of mobile devices and Facebook people have sacrificed conversation with connection. People are always on their phones and struggle to maintain eye contact when their texting in classrooms and even in dates when you are supposed to connect to someone physically and emotionally and instead people act like robots and text even on dates and probably other social occasions. All this meant to show how people have become less social due to their phones always sending texts or emails and shopping online when they should be focused on where they are who they’re speaking to and what time it is. And this is a reasonable conclusion in our modern society people, especially teenage girls; seem to be on their phones texting almost 24/7.

These drawbacks include too many people being reliant to talking online rather than in person and not verbally communicating with friends even though they are in the same room. Jasmine Fowlkes shows the reality in how social media is affecting our new generation through her article, “Viewpoint: Why Social Media is Destroying our Social Skills.” After discussing the results conducted by several researchers, Fowlkes states,“As more generations are born into the social age, social media will continue to be the favored communication form among young people. However, this shift may begin to affect their ability to properly communicate in person with peers.” Many start to rely on applications on our devices to talk to people, but this results in less verbal communication. In addition, Kelly-Fay’s Talktrack research study showed that conversations held in person are much more impactful than on social media. Rather than making social media a huge part of your life, Fowlkes wishes that people would look up from their phones and engage more with others since that could change their lives.

Years of research show that texting is leading to an increase in social awkwardness in teens and children. “Nini Halkett has taught history there for two decades. As her students are increasingly immersed in texting, Halkett also finds them increasingly shy and awkward in person.” (Jennifer Ludden’s article “Teen Texting Soars; Will Social Skills Suffer?” paragraph 14). With a majority of teens feeling more at ease texting each other, this can and will lead to

“Can you remember the last time you were in a public space in America and didn’t notice that half the people around you were bent over a digital screen, thumbing a connection to somewhere else?” (Fredrickson, 2013, pg. 1). In a world today where sending a text message containing the message “I luv you,” is equally powerful to that statement said in person to your significant other. Today’s generation is surrounded by the constant need to have technology and mainly cell phones at your fingertips. Gone are the days when people would talk to one another whilst standing in line, now it is all about having and using your cell phone to pass the time. All of this takes bondage on having an interpersonal relationship with each other and conversing

The article presents the problem with communication with lots of research that has been done in past years. The research data it was presented was mostly accurate through the essay. another article written by Moscaritolo, Angle says “teens sends and receives 60 texts massage a day, up for 50 in 2009…” as the years gone there has been an increase in uses of phones. We can get be in a family meeting but more often you will find out teens prefer to talk to you by text than having face

Katie Hafner’s article, “Texting May Be Taking a Toll,” displays that the rising number of texts sent by adolescents day in and day out is starting to take a big toll on them, their lifestyle, and the people around them. To start off, in the first part of the article Hafner expresses that the point of the first section is that with a growing number of young people utilizing texting and using it nonstop texting is causing serious issues such as anxiety, failing grades, distraction in school, sleep issues and many others. The author exclaims in the section that, “The phenomenon is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists, who say it is leading to anxiety distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation.”

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.

Consequently, people who text a lot may be more uncomfortable with in-person communication.” Taking this information into account, it becomes clear that cell phones have essentially decreased face-to-face socialization and have socially affected those who use cell phones as a main source of communication. Along with the absence of face-to-face social interaction, arises the issue of resolving problems via text rather than in person. Cell phones have provided a way to hide behind technology from emotionally distressing events, such as ending relationships (Campbell, 2005).

New technology, particularly texting, has made societies communication obnoxious. It complicates the dynamic of a relationship because it is so easy to misconstrue the context without having the inflection of the sender 's voice making texts confusing. Contemporary times allow for a person to meet individuals from a setting that are no longer face-to-face. With the advent of internet dating, a person can meet someone new and form a relationship based almost exclusively on e-mailing or text messages. The problem with forming a relationship in this matter is that an individual will likely form unrealistic expectations and standards of the person based on their electronic interactions. People have a preconceived notion on the manner on another and will assume they will act a certain way before they ever meet face-to-face. In one recent study, Korean psychiatrist and addiction specialist Sam-Wook Choi, and several colleagues wrote that smartphone addiction, like other impulse-control disorders, can "interfere with school or work; decrease real-life social interaction; decrease academic ability; and cause relationship problems." New research has also found that students would sooner give up coffee, sex and eating out before their beloved smartphones.

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”

The article presents the problem with communication with lots of research that has been done in past years. The research data presented was mostly accurate throughout the essay. Another article written by Angle, Moscaritolo state that, “teens sends and receive 60 texts message a day, up from 50 in 2009…” so as the years go by there has been an increase in the use of smartphones. We can be in a family meeting, but more often will find out that teens prefer to “talk” to you by text than having face-to-face

Just buying your groceries, you can encounter dozens of people texting, emailing, or posting, because we live in a world where this is considered commonplace and natural. Cell phones have taken over the planet to the degree that of the 7.5 billion people on the planet, roughly 6 billion have cell phones, while only 4.5 have access to working toilets (ASAPScience, 2016). While you yourself probably text and use social media multiple times throughout the day, have you ever considered trying to live a month without it. Per day, U.S. teens spend about 7.5 hours on their phones, computers, and other devices, and the number has likely increased (Learning to Talk, 2). Technology has replaced countless chore, but now electronic communication is replacing human relationships. The escalating use of electronics to interact is eroding tangible human connection and depriving people of necessary social skills and wrecking your health.

As of today I can truly say that most youth and young adults are lacking in social communication skills. We have lost the art of letter writing, face to face interaction, even phone conversations lack in social etiquette. However, the most important of these loses is the face to face communication, without it we will be lost in a world of Tweets, Instagram’s and Facebook.