When I was growing up, I sent hand-written letters to my grandma and if I wanted to talk to someone, I picked up the phone and called. Now with email, social media and texting, communicating is easier and quicker, but is it better?
Texting has single-handedly changed the way people date and the way people communicate with their families, friends and coworkers. If I want to make dinner plans with a friend, I send a text like this: “R U around on Sat 4 din?” It’s quick and easy, but there are implications of texting taking over as our main form of communication. When texting first began, I remember I hated it. I thought, I can’t accurately express myself in such a short amount of space. Now it is a standard form of communicating. Last month, I sent more than 1,000 text messages.
I came across an article on Ragan.com, “4 ways texting is killing our communication skills,” written by Susan Young, that makes some good points about texting and how it can impact other areas of communication.
Consider the following:
- Texting reduces the need for in-depth conversations. When you pick up the phone or meet with someone in person, you often learn about what is going on in someone’s life. Texting offers little room for that. By sending a quick text full of abbreviations, you reduce the possibility for in-depth, meaningful dialogue. Additionally, you can’t pick up on body language or tone through text messages. I had a friend who would send texts in all caps and I always thought they were mad, but in truth, you can’t really tell the tone of a conversation through text.
- Texting dumbs down grammar and spelling. Rarely do people adhere to proper grammar and spelling when texting. I often shorten words or ignore misspellings when I text, but this can often spill over into other communications and reinforces this bad habit. Additionally, Young points out that children who text and use shortened forms of communication are not practicing the writing and communications skills they need for school and the workforce.
- Texting distracts from life. People typically don’t take calls while in meetings, dinner parties or while spending time with the family. However, because texting is quick and easy, they’ll often send a quick message. However, as Young points out, “Texting pulls our focus away from the people and tasks we are experiencing in the moment, which deprives us of being completely present in our lives.” I was recently on a family trip and we were at a restaurant. My mom, dad and I were all on our phones sending texts. My grandma said, “Look at you all. You are all doing it!” I realized that I wasn’t fully engaged because I was half in another conversation through text.
- Texting isn’t always clear. When you combine short, abbreviated messages with the inability to detect tone and body language, there are a lot of opportunities to read too much into a text. People analyze what they anticipate a message meant or didn’t mean. I’ve also found that I cut down my messages via text which doesn’t provide enough context. This can cause misunderstandings.
Texting does serve a purpose. It is helpful to make quick plans or update someone when you don’t want to disturb them, but don’t let it replace your daily communication with people. So much can get lost between the letters, symbols and emoticons.
TTYL