Communication is always constant, yet continuously changing. It has evolved with the human race and has developed through new forms of technology and resources.
It is obvious that communication is the key in forming relationships and moving through life. However, with the invention of text messaging, email and social networking, the social aspect of our generation is quite different, and in many ways far less personal and meaningful as it once was. In fact, it is hard to even consider it as real communication.
I did not have my own cell phone until my sophomore year of high school. I had no need for it. I would contact my friends the old fashion way, from my home landline to theirs. It is absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary that more and more children and pre-teens not only have a cell phone, but have the data plans and text messaging as well.
It is no secret that landlines are on the path toward extinction, and cells are the way of the future, but why would a 7-year-old child need to have full text messaging privileges? The only positive thing about a child having a cell phone that young is if there is an emergency and they need to contact someone quickly. But past generations were able to figure that out without the use of technology, and they turned out okay.
It is worrisome that children have become so reliant on cell phones as their main source of communication. According to the website marketingcharts.com, text messaging is replacing talking among most teens. The results from a study on this matter stated that, “Teens admitted spending nearly an equal amount of time talking as they do texting each month. The feature is so important to them that if texting were no longer an option 47 percent of teens say their social life would end or be worsened.”
Text messaging has become so natural and normal to the youth that many of them can type an entire response with their eyes closed. This cannot help but plant concerns and raise uncertainties about the future of society.
Text messaging is not the only barrier that has been built that has halted adolescence from communicating on a more personal and healthy level. Social networking has become such a prominent part of these children’s lives that many of them cannot imagine a world without it.
Updating their Facebook profile is just as important toward their reputation and popularity as the clothes they wear and the friends they choose. This not only prevents children from having a proper conversation where they can actually make eye contact, or at least hear one another’s voice, but it also presents certain risks. We all know about those.
Email is also a contributing factor. Now that individuals can access everything online, much more time is spent surfing the Web and it is convenient to communicate through email as well. Quite honestly, I feel as though it is much more inconvenient and is something I will never understand.
With the advancement in technology and the growth of using alternate sources of communication the social element of our being will eventually be diminished.
What will kids do when they are forced to carry on a conversation face to face with someone? How will they know how to respond to situations in their careers and education?
It is simple, really: they won’t.
They will not have the social confidence or abilities because they spent their childhoods communicating from behind a screen.
Reach the reporter at chelsea.w.brown@asu.edu
