From Green Line Account Manager Lindsey Graeber
Technology gives us so much…but have we become too reliant? It is hard to believe that thought could even cross my mind. Wherever I am, my iPhone is always within reach. I use it for work and pleasure, to email, text message, and call. If my thoughts can fit into a text message without causing carpel tunnel syndrome in my thumbs, I usually do not make a phone call. With the iPhone apps enabling users to log on to Facebook and Twitter on their phones, people have two more modes of communication connecting them to an even wider audience.
Is this immediate connection hindering our ability to communicate face to face? I will never be one to look on the downside of new age technology. I love any modem that enables me to instantaneously communicate with friends or family, regardless of distance. At work, if I have the choice between making a phone call or typing an email I typically choose the latter; it takes less time and I can complete other projects while a conversation takes place.
After reading Martha Irvine’s article below, I am torn between my attachment to instant communication and acknowledging that it is not true communication. For maximum productivity, asking a simple question or to multi-task, texting, email and similar forms of communication will do. However, to truly talk to another person on a level that requires empathy and understanding requires more than words typed on a screen with a few interspersed emoticons. Face to face interaction is irreplaceable and an invaluable form of communication. When you need to catch up with your friend, go out to lunch…or at least video chat.
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Communications divide splits texters and talkers
by Martha Irvine via The Wichita Eagle
CHICAGO — Anna Schiferl hadn’t even rolled out of bed when she reached for her cellphone and typed a text to her mom one recent Saturday. Mom was right downstairs in the kitchen. The text? Anna wanted cinnamon rolls for breakfast.
Soon after, the 13-year-old could hear mom’s voice echoing through the house.
“Anna,” Joanna Schiferl called, “if you want to talk to me, you come downstairs and see me!”
Anna laughs about it now. “I was kind of being lazy,” the teen from suburban Chicago concedes. “I know that sounds horrible.”
Well, maybe not horrible, but certainly increasingly typical.
Statistics from the Pew Internet & American Life Project show that, these days, many people with cellphones prefer texting over a phone call. It’s not always young people, though the data indicate that the younger you are, the more likely you are to prefer texting.
And that’s creating a communication divide, of sorts — the talkers vs. the texters.
Click here to view the original article.
