The Magical World of Texting

As the world progresses and our technology grows increasingly advanced, we are constantly being enchanted by and sucked into every fancy, new toy, which we almost always end up breaking. It seems as though our lives have become centered on all of these little technological devices. Take the cell phone, for instance: The human race is becoming more and more dependent on these tools that were once only used for communication. I’ve realized two things from watching the Iphone commercials: One, we are extremely lazy, and two, we don’t seem to know how to read a phonebook or a map.

However, I am not here to talk about the world’s laziness, nor our idiocy. No, I am here to describe the population’s slow decline from clever conversation to a speech that seems to be taking over our minds. I am speaking, of course, of texting. It appears as though intelligent words are being replaced with things such as, ‘lol’ or ‘btw’ or even ‘omg.’ Here we are in the year of 2009, and what have we got to show for it? A once-brilliant vocabulary that is being whirled away by the texting craze that is sweeping the globe.

I’ve always been told to respect my elders. I once scoffed at the idea, thinking that they deserved no more recognition than anyone else, even someone of my young adolescent age. Now, however, I realize how truly amazing it is that they can go through an entire sentence without saying the word ‘like’ at least once. I remember talking to a friend, and counting how many times she said ‘like’ in her speech. The total tally was a shocking number of eight times, and she had been speaking for less than a mere minute.

I’m not saying that I can go without saying ‘like’ instead of using a more intelligent fill-in. I’m working on that. Back on the subject of respecting my elders, I recall watching a cell phone commercial. You all should know the one I’m talking about, with the grandmother and her “BFF Rose.” I can honestly say that I have never met a grandparent, or anyone else of that age, who uses ‘text talk.’ Grandparents are always talking to their grandchildren about, “When I was your age . . .” However, do any of us ever stop to really listen? Or are we too busy with our technological lives?

“The dead might as well try to speak to the living as the old to the young”, Willa Cather

I know about these so-called addictions to texting that seem to capture the person wholly, so much so that they lose consciousness of everything else around them. I can honestly say that I have fallen under the spell of texting, and I hope never to again. I enjoy face-to-face conversations. How do you show emotion through a text? A little smiley emoticon? I guess I’m beyond understanding how that beats talking in person, and showing your feelings that way. Maybe some people can achieve that, but I just can’t wrap my mind around it.

So, in conclusion, I’d like to say that texting is not an alternative to speaking. Cell phones have taken over our lives in more ways than one, it seems. We can no longer amuse ourselves with things, besides texting or things that relate to it. I mean, whatever happened to reading a book? Oh wait, I forgot.

They have an app for that, too.