Texting and the Loss of Culture
by coramdeo on Sep.16, 2008, under Culture
How many of you have been broken up with over text messaging? Or how about email? Our culture has become obsessed with texting, but whats wrong with that?
I would argue that texting does have some benefits, however it can have some costly consequences to culture and human interaction. As texting becomes more and more prevalent as a primary means of communication i predict that you will see more and more Text message break ups.
If more and more people start to break up over text message, you will see a decline in a staple of our cultural interaction: the face to face restaurant break up. Think about it, no more restaurant break ups, no more public humiliation, no more public tears, people will start becoming callused to other people’s emotional needs, people will stop staying in relationships just because they are afraid to leave for fear of the public humiliation and the show that will follow a restaurant break up.
I know no one likes the restaurant break up, but it is a staple in building character into people, and those who have never experienced such a thing lack an essential human experience. Pain and difficulty build more character into people than pleasure and ease. The world is better having pain and difficulty in it precisely because it makes people better people. Can you imagine a world where everyone is happy, and everything is easy? What a bunch of stuck up selfish people they would be, if they had no comprehension of pain, suffering, evil, ect.
This is a disintegration of our culture as we know it. As people use texting more and more, they will stop taking personal responsibility for their words, and will start to use texting as a wall to human interaction. They will use it to avoid “stressful” or “difficult” circumstances, which will then in turn leave their character with a void in it.
This is a disintegration of clear communication. How many people have been confused and offended by a text because they couldnt understand the tone in which the text was meant to be read in? Words are very hard to communicate certain things with, because they cannot accurately represent your tone or inflection, which are all important things in understanding messages from others.
For short quick responses like “yes”, “no”, “park 2 blocks away and walk around to the back door and throw up a rock at the window 2 times to let me know you are here and i will throw a rope down to you and you climb up the rope ok?”, and”hamburger”, one can use texting, but if the message is meant to communicate any type of emotion, or complex details or anything that might need a response, please at least use the phone, if not do it face to face.
I hope as texting becomes more prevalent that people will not forget that a face to face meeting is the best thing, followed by a phone conversation, followed by email, and lastly texting. Please only use texting as a last resort, or if a quick reply is needed. I could write a whole blog explaining when someone should use texting and when someone shouldn’t but for now i will just say: Please dont use it very often. Lets not let human interaction die, let us not run to our computers, phones, or Tvs for human interaction, but lets us go out, see nature, see real food, and see the tears.