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Texting Is Destroying America
I like texting. For conveying short bits of information, it is much more convenient than having a conversation over the phone and there are numerous situations in which texting is an ideal means of communication. For example, if you’re giving someone an address or asking them to pick up milk on the way home from work, it is easier and more convenient to text than it is to call.
For someone my age I was fairly slow to adopt texting. I steadfastly refused to text at all until I bought an iPhone in 2007. Since then, I’ve come to realize texting can be a valuable medium of communication and I believe that it has generally made me more efficient person. Nevertheless, two recent experiences have led me to conclude that texting is destroying America.
The first experience was two weekends ago when I was in the (novel for me) situation of having houseguests, one of which was my friend’s 13-year-old daughter. Now, like any reasonable adult, I do my best to limit my interaction with adolescents and teenagers to the absolute minimum, so I was completely unprepared for the way texting dominates the lives of America’s youths.
The girl in question, though unobjectionable other respects, spent the entirety of the weekend (meals included) texting. While I’m generally sympathetic to the plight of a 13-year-old who is separated from her peers and forced into the company of a group of adults (and lawyers at that), I couldn’t help but notice that over the course of the weekend this girl did not have a single verbal conversation, either with the people she was around or even over the phone. The few times I tried to engage her in conversation were notable for their lack of success. The girl’s mother appreciated my efforts to engage her daughter in conversation and, somewhat apologetically, told me not to take their failure as a personal rebuke. She assured me that the girl’s verbal taciturnity is not limited to me or to adults generally. She apparently has a boyfriend with whom she communicates almost exclusively via text. I am reliably informed that this is not at all uncommon.
The second experience occurred yesterday. In the course of preparing for upcoming litigation I had to review the phone records of one of the witnesses. The records in question cover a period of two days, during which the witness was asleep for sixteen hours. Over that period of time the witness sent or received 936 text messages. This means the witness either sent or received a text approximately every two minutes she was awake.
This would be a prodigious feat even for the above-mentioned 13-year-old, who had no other real claims on her time or attention. It is all the more astonishing when one considers that the witness in question is a college educated 28-year-old single mother of two who is employed in a fairly responsible position at a major corporation. With all that texting one has to marvel that she is able to find time to feed and clothe her children, let alone accomplish anything at work.
The sheer volume of texts provoked astonishment, but their content caused me to despair. In addition to being depressingly crass and banal, they were so riddled with flagrant departures from the norms of grammar, syntax, and spelling as to be virtually incomprehensible. In fact, it took me several hours before I felt confident in my comprehension of the texts. I actually consider this no mean feat, as they were written in what can best be described as a unique dialect whose relation to standard English is on par with Jamaican patois or Glaswegian (the latter of which I was only able to understand passably after living in Scotland, with a Glaswegian roommate, for some months).
So I understand American society is facing a number of serious problems. We can’t control our borders, the rate of out of wedlock births continues to rise, and the leviathan state is an increasingly ubiquitous presence every facet of our lives, but I submit these threats pale to insignificance when compared to the deleterious effect texting has had on our society.
What do you think? Do you text? If so, how much? Has texting had any effect on your interpersonal relations or on your general ability to communicate?
Photo Credit: Flickr user jhaymesisvip.
Published in General
Hyperbole is destroying America.
Language is dirty like that, and English seems exceptionally dirty. I doubt there’s another language that matches standard English’s indiscriminate borrowing from other languages and registers – we speak a West Germanic language whose vocabulary is now richer in both French (28%) and Latinate (28%) words than it is in actual Germanic ones (25%).
Historically, this linguistic promiscuity has been more of an asset than a liability. Despite our ridiculous spelling system (thanks, William Caxton), English grammar is fairly streamlined – and pretty much has to be, if we want words of Germanic, French, and Latin origin to all play nice together. Plus our vocabulary is exceptionally rich.
It’s hard to imagine right now that the vapidity of texting has anything to add to our language. But if it does have, perhaps that will be added while the sillier stuff is eventually forgotten. Even Shakespeare’s brilliant language included many words that never quite caught on:
I completely agree. My argument was originally that texting is destroying all of western civilization, but I felt that that assertion was a bit excessive.
A few weeks ago on a day-trip up the north shore of Lake Superior, we stopped at Gooseberry Falls to hike around. The park was Saturday-packed, with people wandering around the falls, wading in the river, hiking on the rocks. But I noticed one teen walking around with her face in her iPhone the whole time. I mean, here you are at this beautiful natural location with waterfalls and rivers and Lake Superior . . . and you’ve got your face in your smartphone?
I weep for the future.
/oldfart
Midge- I’m second to none in my admiration for the versatility adaptability the English language. I think it’s free-market approach to lexicon is infinitely superior to that of a rigidly controlled command style language such as French and I rejoice in the richness regional dialects.
That said, as you noted above, failing to master standard English is a severe handicap. The fact that for a large proportion of people their primary use of written English for texting is troubling. All too often such people carry their unorthodox approach to grammar, syntax, and spelling from texts over into other written forms of communication where standard English is both expected and required.
I hardly text at all, and only because I recently acquired my first smart-phone, which has a passable keyboard. I think that the amount one texts is inversely proportional to one’s age.
I consider what you complained about in your post as s symptom of bad upbringing, not of the ubiquity of texting-enabling technology.
One of the reasons I wrotee this post is that, because I’m generally a societal optimist, I rarely get an opportunity to lament the decline in social mores. I leap on any opportunity to express the old fart side of my character.
no txten no haz affectz me i ken steel rite reel gud lolz ;-p
This^
I’m always bemused when an observable change in something that we’re used to (i.e. technology, culture, manners, customs, language, etc.) gets equated to DESTRUCTION!!!!. No wonder the GOP is viewed as the old fart party.
I got a text message once. It was a wrong number.
I think there’s a lot more to this change in communication than just Generational Angst. I think this technology is truly damaging people.
I think, though, that we conservatives sometimes take the wrong tack in trying to persuade people why this is a handicap. It’s not because dialects other than standard English fail to make sense. It’s because those dialects tend not to be widely understood or respected.
“Ungrammatical” has roughly two meanings: “making no sense in any dialect” and “not being part of the prestige dialect”. I’ve found, in tutoring bright kids whose first language isn’t standard English, that being frank about the two different meanings helps them improve their formal English.
In several languages, double negatives and phrases like “taller than me” are part of the standard grammar. Especially when kids already speak languages where those features are standard, of course they’re not going to listen to someone who tells them that those features make no sense.
If, on the other hand, you acknowledge that those features can make sense, but are nonetheless considered bad style in formal English, they’re more likely to believe you when you correct them, and the corrections are (somewhat) more likely to stick.
I come from a family of grammar curmudgeons, incidentally, and still can be one myself. I think, though, that it’s better to be a friendly curmudgeon (someone who points out the socioeconomic benefits of standard English) rather than a crazy curmudgeon (someone who insists that standard English is the only thing that makes sense).
I did have a peculiar run-in with a teenage cousin a few years ago. She related a long, complicated tale involving a character named Mean Sarah. Eventually, I asked her whether Mean Sarah was called Mean Sarah because she was exceptionally mean, or if it was a humorous nickname for someone who was unusually nice. My cousin couldn’t comprehend my question. Because there was no Mean Sarah.
There was only “me ‘n’ Sarah” instead of “Sarah and I”. Not expecting a palefaced blonde-haired girl attending a prestigious high school to use such language – and in front of her mother, too, without correction – I had unconsciously invented a bizarre nickname for one of her friends just to get her story to make sense to me.
I am the youngest of 8 children. One of my sisters was very ill in and out of the hospital and rehab facilities. Sending and receiving texts to/from family and caregivers saved me time and effort many, many, many times. I agree that texts can be destructive but they can also be helpful. Now if we could just teach teenagers the value of moderation.
Is this a safe thread for cranks? Is it okay if I h8 the word, “texting?”
‘Cause I do.
My girlfriend is a high school English teacher, and I am literate. We text a lot. We have no problem using correct grammar and, for the most part, punctuation (my voice-to-text program recognizes “comma” but not “semicolon”, so I use the comma and hope for the best).
Our biggest problem is all the rest that is not conveyed in a text: tone of voice, inflection, etc. Soooo much misunderstanding, which has led to so much trouble. Took me a while to figure out that maybe texting, while great for some things, might not the best medium for actual conversations, especially relationship-type stuff.
Example: In a recent long thread (off and on spanning a couple of days) was concerning something I’d said that had upset her, but she didn’t want to discuss it yet. She finally said she did, and I, in a hurry and in the middle of something at work, typed a happy “Can’t wait”. She, because of whatever her situation was right then, took this as totally sarcastic. This touched off a series of compounding misunderstandings that we are still trying to get over it all. Stoopid texting!
This is where I think emoticons were invented to fill that need. People deride them as silly or childish, but I think they can help convey tone.
Next time try typing: Can’t wait! :-)
“Most of us can learn more than one language, dialect, or register. The problem isn’t texting patois itself, it’s only knowing texting patois. Which, if you spend all your time texting, will be all you’ll know. –Midget Faded Rattlesnake”
This is an important point I make to my students. There are a variety of ways to communicate, and educated people know which one is appropriate for different occasions. People won’t know how smart you are unless you can tell them, and if you don’t know how to use [write and speak] standard English, then you are at a great disadvantage.
I text on occasion because it is very convenient, and because some people only text me, vs call me. I also can write letters, formal and informal, and I know how to give a speech, as well as chat with co-workers or my students’ parents. I show my students that all of it is useful, none of it is “wrong”–just sometimes inappropriate…like at a dinner table when you are a guest.
We just got back from a great vacation with Mr. Mc’s extended family. Some of the older kids texted frequently, even with each other, in the same room; others were less tied to their phones. Only our oldest is old enough for a phone (the McTwins have to wait another year ’til middle school), and we have thus far refused to spring for the expense of a smart phone. At this point he texts very little, but he would be permanently glued to his iPod if we did not enforce rules of etiquette about devices at the dinner table, “when I’m talking to you”, etc.
I’ll admit that I did not mind the device-heavy atmosphere at all on our vacation, as it was a reasonably nice alternative to having every TV in the house blaring and all the kids divided up by what they wanted to watch on TV. They all sat around the living room sharing videos on their phones and hanging out, and the adults could actually sit WITH THEM and talk. The TV was rarely on. I realize that’s vacation, as opposed to real life, but our family seems to have found some happy medium of talking to the people you’re with vs. texting people who are somewhere else.
Great post.
Texting is efficient for certain business interactions that require only a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Otherwise, it wastes time during the workday because there are always several dimensions to a serious decision; a two minute verbal communication by phone allows for an immediate and more precise communication.
As for ‘social texting,’ I do not understand the charm when one can pick up a phone and hear a voice, skype, or even e-mail where one is allowed to use full sentences. I’ve also found when coordinating social activities, everybody feels comfortable ignoring timetables because they can just text ‘Run N L8.’
I commute into the city everyday and spend half my day dodging what I call “downers”. People walking with their heads buried in their phones. It is insane! I recently watched a woman walk into kiosk on the Embarcadero because she couldn’t/wouldn’t look up from her phone. I was trying to warn her but of course she had her earbuds in.
Everyday, some asshat tries to navigate the stairs while texting holding up hundreds of people that just want to get home after a long day.
My boss can’t make it through a 1-1 session or any meeting without his face buried in his phone. It is such a joy to try and have a serious conversation with someone that clearly isn’t paying attention.
I could have quite happily missed the smart phone era. The phones might be smart but the people not so much.
I spent a week commuting with 2 coworkers to another location, about 45 minutes each way. One, a woman in her early 20’s, would spend almost the entire commute texting and Snapchatting with her boyfriend. Any time not spent in such activity was spent talking (whining) with the other coworker about her boyfriend (and occasionally about hated managers).
One of my most significant immersions into generational difference, particularly given that this woman was, herself, a department manager. (Methinks “Huh, how?)
BTW, ROFLAMO, the Ricochet text editor indicates that “texting” is a misspelling. Must have been written by some real fuddy-duddies!
Texting, while serving many valuable functions, seems to me just another means by which we can alienate and disrespect those around us, which is the real problem, and no worse than answering your phone (mobile or home) when you have guests over. In either case, you are affirming, perhaps unintentionally, that those around you matter less than whoever is calling.
Many years ago my wife and I were was having dinner at a wiser couple’s home when their phone rang. They didn’t flinch, just continued our conversation and let the machine get it, repeated several more times that evening. We were surprised, flattered, honored, and when I mentioned it, they let us know that we were every bit as important as whoever might be calling. They modeled uncommon respect for us in a manner few do, much less so today.
Since that night I’ve never answered my phone when entertaining, and I get annoyed when others do, and some of my best friends are guilty in this. I know they mean no disrespect, are oblivious, yet disrespect is exactly what it is nonetheless.
I honestly don’t text very much. I much prefer to call, but being as I only have a handful of friends, it doesn’t really come up all that often.
Also, I know this might make me a bad parent, but I am not going to buy my kids smartphones with text plans. I also fully plan on raising kids who don’t have more than a handful of friends, either.
My biggest time waster right now is Ricochet.
I learned to text on my non-smart phone after my (grown) sons stopped answering phone calls.
By the time our kids are of age to worry about it, we’ll be telling them they can’t have their Matrix-style brain plugs or something. :)
I never send or receive texts. I use E mail.
My pet peeve is Twitter. I can’t understand why people in the media use it. In a world where careful selection of words in order to capture the correct shades and nuances is the essence of your art, why would you EVER limit yourself to 140 characters? The best you could ever hope for is to either express something so simple that it need not be said, vent some spleen (usually not a good idea), or to try and say something worth saying and screw it up because you are restricted in the number of characters.
My REAL pet peeve is when I follow a link to a website and find it is just a bunch of tweets, one right after another. It is WAY too much work to sort them out. Waste of time. Anyway, being tweets they will fall into one of the three categories I mentioned.
If you want to write, then write. Show us your stuff and leave the tweeting to pissed off people with little to say.
Apparently the Phillipines is much further gone..
http://basketball.asia-basket.com/team/Philippines/Talk_N_Text_Tropang_Texters/2348
I’ve been trying to get myself into the habit of stepping backward in communication technology. So, when I find myself tempted to e-mail a friend — even if it’s just to set up a lunch — I’ll call instead. Lately I’ve considered going back to writing letters. It’s a lost skill.
And when a solar flare wipes out technology, I’ll be able to scribble on rocks for help, while everyone else will be futilely texting into their dead smart-phones. I win!