Should You Break Up With Your Boyfriend Or Make an Announcement Via A Text Message?
Posted: Tuesday, May 11, 2010
by Fran Larson
http://www.franniesquotes.com/
The first time I noticed this "thing" that came in the way of real communication was when I was being trained to be a hostess/waitress for an elite, sophisticated Tea Room. It was extremely important (to the owners) that every doily be placed on the table at a certain angel; every teacup with the handle on the right; every piece of silver matching perfectly and wrapped in a matching cloth napkin, then placed strategically on the lace place mat.
Anyway, a very young teen was to be my "trainer." I'll call her Jenny. I can't stress enough how strict the owners were about how the Tea Room should look and also we needed to play the "perfect" music for atmosphere. (It usually depended on the owner's mood that day, but how would we know what that mood was?)
As I was setting the table, one of the owners rushed out to "correct" my imperfect table. Then they chided Jenny for not teaching me exactly how to do the job. Most of the time when I would ask Jenny a question, she was in deep concentration, bending over her telephone and punching out letters. (This was when texting was just beginning to be popular.)
This was the "thing" that I mentioned earlier texting.
As time went by, the texting became more of a "calling" for Jenny. Even during a crisis (such as people swarming in the tearoom and me needing her experienced help), Jenny never missed a beat with her texting.
We never had a real conversation, as Jenny was usually answering a text and never looked up to complete a sentence. What happened to eye contact and expressions of laughter and fun?
This was my first experience with "the thing."
I am not completely against progress in the form of Texting, FaceBook or Tweeting but I am concerned about the art of conversation. Texting is like anything else moderation is good.
But did you know that among American teen texters, half send more than 50 text messages a day, and a full third send approximately 100 text messages a day? That's the news today from the Pew Research Center, which has published a long study on the texting habits.
Let's do some quick math. Say it takes about 30 seconds to send a text message. At 3,000 text messages, these girls are spending 25 hours a month texting. We're getting tired just thinking about it. Then, of course, there's the 2009 LG US National Texting Champion, Kate Moore, who admits to sending 14,000 texts a month. (From http://www.csmonitor.com/)
25 hours a month seems like a lot of time to actually be torn away from friends and loved ones who actually want to have a conversation.
Will our children grow up with short tweety sentences? Will we become a nation or grunts and lols? Will we remember how to look someone in the eye or spell? Can anything really replace having a cup of tea with a friend and a heart-to-heart talk?
The worst concern is that texting, for many people is a cowardly way of breaking up with someone or sending a very important message or announcement that should be told face-to-face.That is the ultimate way to make someone feel really unimportant and hurt. It isn't classy at all.
When others are texting in your presence, it gives a message that the texter is self-important and has many friends waiting for an answer. The present moment is being totally ignored because of some short, pointless message that is texted out of boredom.
Alan Watts said, I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.
I'm just saying many very important moments may be ignored and could leave patches of emptiness from the lack of human contact. Defining moments, moments of adventure, or pure joyful moments may be missed when ignored or even being unaware of.
I'm just saying.stop, look up from your keypad and smell the roses from time-to-time.
This Article has been viewed 54 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.