Face to face communication is a growing problem in today’s society, especially with young adults and children. Because peoples’ heads seem to constantly be stuck in the newest form of technology like their iPhone or Android, they rarely talk to people face to face. As a matter of fact, you’ll find that some people feel awkward making small talk with strangers, or even talking to their “friends” in person.
Over recent years, the internet and texting has really taken off, now with millions of people all over the world using technology as some form of communication simply because it’s an easier and faster method to relay messages to whomever you would like. Studies show that one in three teenagers between the ages of 12 to 17 send at least 100 texts a day adding up to over 3,000 texts in one month. (News Washington and Lee University) This does not include the messages sent on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. All of these sites allow the user behind the screen to instantly message or communicate with their person of interest, whether it is a friend or someone they have never met before.
There are many advantages to staying up to date with technology, but also just as many, if not more disadvantages…especially for people under the age of 18. Some advantages include a quicker way of getting things done. Many years back I would be hand-writing this paper instead of typing it, which could cause problems with lack of spell-check, or legibility. Now that we have computers, typewriting is much easier and more comfortable because of the myriad amounts of ways that it helps. Not only is technology good for writing papers, but also for staying up to date for events like sports practices or games being cancelled, o...
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...body toward them, at the same time ask many questions. These things will stupendously help reduce awkward conversations with people and possibly end face to face communication issues.
Works Cited
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"Tyler Clementi 1992-2010." Parental Control. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
"Washington and Lee University." News Washington and Lee University. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. (This is the Pew Research Center citation)
"80% of Smartphone Users Check Their Phones Before Brushing Their Teeth … And Other Hot Topics." Constant Contact Blogs. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
To begin, it is evident today that teenagers love being connected with their friends and family all at the tip of their thumbs. They love texting. According to a study by Amanda Lenhart, 88 percent of teens use a cell phone or smart phone of which 90 percent of them use text message. An average teen sends 30 texts per day. (Lenhart) As shown in this study, teens have easy access to text messaging. In her Ted talks called “Texting That Save Lives” and “The Heartbreaking Text That Inspired a Crisis Help Line,” Nancy Lublin talks about how she received disturbing text messages from young people that mentions how they’re being bullied, wanting to commit suicide, cutting themselves, and being raped by their father. She was exceedingly emotional when receiving these texts. She felt like she had to do something about it. So, with her knowledge about teens and the power of texting, Nancy Lublin created something that would help save these young kids’ lives, the Crisis Text Line. (“Texting”)(“Heartbreaking”)
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.
People’s lives are influenced by the lack of communicating. For example, in Hamilton Spectator’s article Wired For the Future, the writer explains the negative effects caused by the lack of communicating by saying, “[i]f teens stop communicating with their friends and others face to face, they will lose the ability to navigate complex social situations and that could be devastating for them when they are faced with college and job interviews....” (Hamilton Spectator 2). In other words, that when people keep forgetting how to communicate by overly using messaging systems, it could lead to negative problems in their lives: interviews or meeting with delegates. Those are important to people’s lives, because when children are independent and working in their jobs, they have to socialize with others. Communicating is unavoidable in social life, because people still communicate even though texting and messaging are taking enormous space in our world. In addition, People text too much without talking and communicating face to face. For instance, in Jessica Mazzola’s article Nighttime Texting, she showed the surveyed data of texting by saying, “...American teens send and receive an average of 1,500 texts per month” (Mazzola 1). By all means, texting is rooted deeply in people’s lives and replaced where real conversations should be. As the article mentioned, 1,500 texts per month should be affecting people’s lives directly. Communicating face-to-face and real conversations are certainly reduced dramatically as the texting increases. Therefore, people get influenced by the erosion of
Texting however keeps people at arm’s length and prevents relationships from getting past a certain level of rapport. Text messages help people create distance between them and another person. This distance can lead to many things, like lost friendship. Friendships can be lost in text messages because of tone. I was texting my sister one day, who types in all capital letters, and finally halfway through the conversation I asked her why she was yelling at me, because that is how I was reading them, as me being yelled at. When she responded she was very confused, and told me that she didn’t realize that she had been yelling at me and was sorry. This can happen to anybody. People can confuse tone in text messages, and that can lead to one person arguing with someone who has no idea that they are in a fight. Text messages are also used by people to purposely keep others away from them, and by some it is used to hide. Alice G Walton, a science journalist with a Ph.D. in Biopsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience says, “People like to text because the message gives them the ability to hide,” (Walton). It is like the saying “a drunken mind speaks a sober heart,” When people are drunk they hide behind being it, and use alcohol as their mask, but when they are texting, it’s the phone. They are able to say what they would like, without having to actually face the person they are talking to, and
The article from Computers in Human Behavior titled “Five days at an outdoor education camp without screens improves preteen skills with nonverbal emotion cues” by Ulhs, Micikiyan, Morris, Garcia, Sall, Zgourou, and Greenfield, examines research literature which indicates that face-to-face interaction is essential in human development, both in infants and older children. The influx of technological devices, including computers, smart phones, interactive video games, and tablets, has shifted how people communicate in today’s world. Children from a very early age are now being exposed to media as much as “7 ½ hours per day, seven days a week” and usage of media devices has grown “five fold” since 2012 (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010). The review of literature from sources such as “Common Sense Media” on the importance of face-to-face human interaction, coupled with the staggering rates of media use among children, prompted the researchers of the article to embark on a study which analyzes what
Tweets, texts, and the virtual world are beginning to engulf human society one message at a time. For the past ten years, the estimated phone usage per day has become three to four hours. Those precious hours add up quickly, resulting in a total of one hundred and twelve hours per month spent staring at an animated screen. Children, teens, and even adults are beginning to use their cell phones more and more, and are putting themselves at a greater risk of developing social awkwardness, little persistence, and becoming known as digital natives; all these traits driven within your hand held partner.
Childs, Dan. “7 Surprising Ways Cell Phones Affect Your Health.” ABC News. 9 Mar, 2009. Web.
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...
Why was the message that was sent to me in all caps? Is that a way of showing anger? Many get emails or texts or any forms of messages through electronic communication and have no idea what the message is saying or how their tone of voice is. Many have kids who just started using communication or haven’t started at all, and are wondering what to teach their kids about communication. The best solution to this problem is to teach using face to face communication. In the old days, talking face to face was the way to go. They would walk or drive somewhere and meet up just to have a conversation. Now a day we rely on electronics. Even though sending emails is easy, talking face to face helps understand people in a more formal manner. Are these digital connections as meaningful as the old fashioned face-to-face kind?
Schencker, Lisa. “Can texting bring teens, parents closer 2gether?: Texting might improve communication” Financial Times Ltd. (2009). Worldcat. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.
Jenna Wortham’s article, “I Had a Nice Time with You Tonight On the App,” is her response to Sherry Turkle’s argument that electronic communication is a replacement for face to face communication. Wortham argues that face to face communication is actually enhanced by electronic communication. Using herself as an example, Wortham starts by mentioning the time she and her boyfriend lived 3,000 miles apart and because of smartphone applications they felt as if they were in the same room together. She also argues that because of all the instant-messaging applications, like Facebook, and Twitter, friends and families are always connected to each other and are easily able to figure out what is going on with them.
The Web. 17 February 2014. Lee Ava. Negative Effects of Parents Using Texting to Converse. Global Post. ND.
“Texting in Class a Growing Problem.” TheKanson.com. 7 December 2010. Singel, Ryan. The.
Although it would seem that smartphones help people communicate quicker and more effectively, conversations held through smart phones can easily lead to misunderstandings. Along with the chance of someone misinterpreting conversations through texts, posts, and instant messaging, communication through smartphones is also causing a rapid decline in people’s communication skills. Zosia Bielski, a Journalist for the Globe and Mail, reports that, “Phone calls have come to irritate us because they’re unwieldy and can’t be corralled like a quick text or e-mail. According to the Pew Research Center, teens now find talking to new friends on the phone ‘awkward’ and ‘weird.’”. This is a perfect example of how smart phones have caused negative effects on communication. Even though smart phones