As a woman, extrovert, and quick thinker I prefer a phone call to texting but I can't call someone for ten minutes between my classes every time I want to talk to him/her. So I shoot a quick text and the conversation we're having continues. Planning is also very convenient over text because people can respond when they have time, rather than playing phone tag all day.
Nancy O'Neill published a blog on Why People Text Instead of Talk
In this blog she goes over several reasons (very unscientific) about why people text rather than talk. One reason that stood out to me (as a communication blogger) was that some people prefer texting because they want to have a conversation that last over several hours.
While I hardly ever talk on the phone for more than five minutes at a time, I do see the advantage in having that constant contact with another person for a long period of time. That being said, that person is not getting your full attention for any one minute of those several hours. Send a quick text, continue what you were doing and ten minutes later check your phone and respond to another text. It's part of our common activities.
However according to Elliot Slenk's blog titled Texting or Calling the heavy texters (50 or more a day) are also heavy on phone calls, It comes from being on phones all the time and wanting to talk to people.
Through texting, there are so many more chances for the meaning of words or sentences to be misunderstood and lead to friction between the sender and receiver. Texting does allow for more time to think though which can help eliminate any quick comments that should not be said out loud.
As a seventeen year old girl, I am never without my cellphone. It often sits on the table during class and it is always in my hand during passing periods. I use my phone for everything. Planning, texting, sharing pictures, calling, playing candy crush, surfing the web and even my countdown until graduation. There is truly an app for everything and I take total advantage of that. I love having all the information in the world at my fingertips. That's not something anyone could've even dreamed of 50 years ago. That's what is so truly amazing.
Cellphone bridge the gap between two people far apart from each other, but puts up a wall with those who we have in real life. It's important to balance out communication in the digital world and communication in the real world.
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI think your use of texting is probably representative of the average person's use of texting because I have seen countless people saying "just text me." I think that the value of texting over traditional phone-calling is that, like you pointed out, the person on the other end does not have to be available to receive your call at that moment in time. People in today's society are constantly preoccupied with doing so many tasks that they are not willing to drop what they are doing and start a new conversation with a new person at any point in time.
What really fascinates me are the similarities between email and text messages. The accessibility of text messages makes people feel pressured to respond in a more timely manner than email. The changes in our technology have clearly made our means of communication far more efficient. Great post!
I never really considered the dual purposes of texting before this post. While the quick and noncommittal nature of texting allows for rapid conversations, I didn't realize how often I let a text wait as I compose a message in my head. I think the allure of texting is embedded in human nature; because we want to have our cake and eat it too, we love to text as a way to minimize foot-in-mouth situations while refraining from the formality and hassle of emails. I'm also quite surprised on the relationship between texting and calling; I just assumed that they were mutually exclusive, but it makes sense when you realize they two forms of communication are used for entirely different needs. Great post!
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