We live in a society where almost everything is at our fingertips, quite literally. The cellphone has made it to where you can communicate quickly with almost anyone, but is faster necessarily better? The use of cellphones as a form of communication has not only changed the way we communicate, but even with who, where, and for how long. The days of letters and face-to-face communication are quickly becoming part of our past, and phone calls are not too far behind. Instead of communication in these ways, cellphones allow you to quick and easily send an email or a text message to your family, friends, or coworkers. We may be communicating quicker, but what is happening to the quality?
Cellphones are more popular now than ever before. The average age of children getting their first cell phones is 8-years-old and more than 35 percent of children in second and third grade own cell phones according to Sean Boswell, author of a campus newsletter. He states that “The irony is that these young kids are now becoming more versed in texting lingo than they are in proper English and face-to-face conversation”. This isn’t a coincidence. Text messaging has quickly risen to one of the most preferred methods of communication. It is quick and convenient but it affects our ability to communicate. Quick communication is a good thing but people who primarily text are pushing the limits. According to Zawn Villines, a GoodTherapy.org Correspondent, text messaging is affecting face-to-face, surface level, and written communication.
The fast paced single thought communication encouraged by text messaging simply does not line up with face-to-face communication. Face-to-face communication is usually much slower in pace and deeper in content. When yo...
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...ness. This demonstrates the breakdown of communication and the increase in loneliness through the excessive use of types of communication such as text messaging vs. verbal face to face and mobile voice calls. We are putting ourselves in this never ending cycle. It is easy to text message to keep in touch, so we do, then we get lonely, and we text some more.
Family time is something that most cherish but what happens when your teen gets sucked into their own world? Devitt, Kerry, and Debi Roker conducted a study on families with young children that use cell phones. In the study many families said that the role cellphones played in their family communication was negative, however some said it was a positive. This study uncovered the issue of children withdrawing into their own social worlds and the communication breakdown of families with cellphone using children.
Today in the Twenty-First century we have surpassed many technological advancements and excelled far past what we would have ever thought. One of our greatest technological advancements is the thing we hold in our hands everyday, our cell phones. Sometimes we don't realize just how much our phones can distract us from our lives. As a generation glued to our phones us teenagers send an average of 3,339 texts per month. In Randy Cohen's essay, “When texting is wrong” he states how we are overcome by texting and how it damages our social and personal lives.
In our world there are many forms of communication and these devices are beginning to take a toll on our younger generations. In Jeffery Kluger’s article,” We Never Talk Anymore: The Problem with Text Messaging,” the idea that younger generations are becoming socially inept due to technology is discussed. As these younger generations consume texting as a main form of communication other important social skills deteriate.
Parents can be spending just as much time on their technology, and could even be ignoring their children. They could be working all day and come home to look at their computer or phone all night. Even if they are doing work, they are ignoring their family and the effects are showing. Parents do not have the connection with their children that they once did. In the article, "Is Technology Ruining the Family," the author discusses the effect cell phones have had.
So I began to research our interactions with cell phones. I knew cell phones couldn’t be all bad, after all they give us the ability to stay connected with people we otherwise would not be able to. Cellphones also allow us to quickly pass information from one another nearly instantaneously and at any time. But even with these seemingly good qualities, I began to question, is it good to be connected so instantaneously at any time, with so many?
Cell phones are gradually affecting American culture today because they are becoming a key part of everyday life. The cell phone is "?an indispensable companion that serves without favor or prejudice. It has reached into every civilized corner of the world--and often brought civilization with it. From its wires spring the words of history in the making, the chatter of daily life" ("43 Years" sc. 1). The cell phone enables individuals to communicate rapidly over great distances and obtain information like never before. People can now pick up the phone and get information on the weather, time, stock market quotations, and other things simply by dialing a few numbers. Cell phones connect the world together, to the point where individuals become almost helpless without it. The next time you find yourself waiting at a stoplight, take the time to observe the people around you. There will likely be at least one person in the surrounding cars who is talking on the phone. Even on the streets, people continue to chat on the phone. Cell phones are everywhere. One resident in Greenville, S.C. admitted that he uses his cell phone at least 15 times a day (Chany sc. 2). The cell phone is in such high use that the traditional phones in homes and offices almost become antique devices on display. Although traditional phones are still around, individuals are quicker to pick up their cell phone.
Text messaging has become a norm in our generation, as technology rapidly advances and gives way to more efficient forms of communication in a fast-paced world; and many are skeptical about the influence this new form of interaction is having on our society, especially with our younger generation. David Crystal, a professor at the University of Wales, writes “2b or Not 2b?” in support of text messaging. He insists, despite those who underestimate or negate the beneficial influence text messaging has on language proficiency, that “there is increasing evidence that [texting] helps rather than hinders literacy” and that the fairly recent form of communication has actually been around for a while and “is merely the latest manifestation of the human ability to be linguistically creative and to adopt language to suit the demands of diverse settings. In contrast, Jeffery Kluger argues in “We Never Talk Anymore: The Problem with Text Messaging” that text messaging is rapidly becoming a substitute for more genuine forms of communication and is resulting in difficulty among young peoples of our generation to hold a face-to-face conversation, engage in significant nonverbal expression, and ultimately build effective relationships with family, friends and co-workers. Both writers’ present valid arguments, however, my personal experience with text messaging has led me to agree more with Crystal’s view on the matter. Text messaging is indeed having a positive effect on society by making frequent texters primarily aware of the need to be understood, as well as offering betterment of spelling and writing through practice, and reinventing and expanding on a bygone dimension of our language through the use of rebuses and abbreviations.
Old fashioned phone conversations are more sincere. They allow people to talk on a personal level, even though they may not be physically next to each other. Phone conversations allow people to have a closer look to your inner personality and a sense of understanding is developed. Yet, if phone calls grow sincere conversations, then why do people prefer texting instead of phone calls? "The more ri...
Step onto any college campus and take a look around. You will find clumps of students standing around in circles, phones in hand, typing away. What is it they are doing? Texting. Ever since the first text message was sent in 1993, the use of text messaging as a means of communication has spread like wild fire, especially amongst the adolescent generation. And with this new form of communication a new language has appeared; text-speak, the shortening of common words into abbreviations and acronyms (Drouin 49). While texting and the text-speak language seem to have been welcomed by many, what affect is this new technology having on the way we communicate? Is it possible that texting is negatively affecting our ability to use formal written communication, or is this idea just a myth perpetuated by negative media attention? And what changes has texting brought to the way we communicate person-to person? Are these changes positive, negative, or perhaps a mixture of both?
Cell phones have crept into an owner’s possession at all times. “The mobile phone has become a part of us: our best friend who will save all our secrets, pleasures and sorrows” ("Exploring"). Teens have developed the need to know the latest news on social media every minute of every day; they do not want to miss any little detail. Since the beginning of smart phones, high school students have felt the need to have their media open on their smart phone in front of them so they do not feel empty. Once someone has become attached or addicted to something, it is hard to change their habits. Cell phones have changed people socially, especially with the availability to social media with electronics.
Cell phones are among the most innovative gadgets of the 20th century. Traditionally, people relied on cumbersome methods to transmit information and data over long distance, which usually made the communication process ineffective and slow. The ability to communicate deferred from one society to another and some societies had advantage over others due to their superior methods of communication. It was problematic to send urgent messages due to the lack of reliable and fast techniques of communication. The cell phone invention solved most of these issues. It introduced a platform through which parties could communicate instantaneously regardless of their location or distance. In addition, the cell phone technology is globally accepted hence it is a uniform medium of communication, making it both fast and efficient in any given community. Moreover, cell phones opened up room for more technological in...
The question of young people and cell phone use and texting causing young people to be less able to concentrate and focus has always been a difficult one to answer. Technology gives teenagers so much but includes many drawbacks. Cell phone use and texting has it’s advantages such as teachers embracing tech,uses for educational purposes, and easy to use;however,some drawbacks are as socializing,time away from homework,and bad communication skills.
Text messaging is damaging our literacy and communication skills as a society. Calling someone on the phone or writing them a letter is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. There is a new language that is being learned and not taught across the globe. It is the language of Textese, and it has quickly consumed the lives of millions across the world. There will always be the protector of language arts. These are the shrinking number of people everyone knows, that will continue to handwrite letters and sign them with proper English and etiquette. It may be as simple as picking up the phone and calling a friend or relative. It may be even simpler than that, in that people put forth an effort to talk to the person sitting next to or across from you and engage them in a conversation. Texting and textisms have become so common and widespread that using proper English, correct spelling, and full sentences is also becoming a thing of the past. People that constantly use text and instant messaging may have difficulty with literacy and expressing themselves in writing form. The research shows that text messaging has deteriorated how we communicate and express ourselves because textisms have become an easier and quicker form of communication that has affected literacy in children and adults.
The major purpose of cellphones is to provide an outlet for verbal communication at a distance, and as the generation progresses in the Digital Age, this purpose has shifted
Twenty-five years ago, a phone was just a way to contact someone. Mobile phones have become one of the most common tools of communication for both young and old. Cellular devices have redefined relationships and social conduct, and transformed the daily lives of many individuals. Cell phones no longer function just as a communication device. Today it has many other uses.
Social isolation may not be a huge threat at this point of time, however teenagers are taking their mobile and online conversations out of the home and into public areas. The terms interproximate and interkinesic communication are used to describe a mobile user who is in two places at once (Omotayo, Yiefeng, and Shyam, 2008). For example, you can be physically with the person, interproximate, but at the same time be on your mobile communicating with another person, interkinesic. In this case the person you are physically with will most likely be negatively impressed by the lack of enthusiasm for interaction. Through observation researchers were able to show that mobile phone users are using their devices as a “retreat” from the real world. While the researchers claimed that the use of mobiles in public places is exclusion, or isolation. A reason for that mobile users are engaging in interproximate and interkinesic communication comes from feeling the need to satisfy the us...