First, cell phones were the new big thing and after calling people on cell phones was not good enough, then came texting. Millions of people use texting today, more than calling people. I am guilty of texting a lot more now than ever before. Texting has its positives and negatives just like everything else in the world.
Starting with some advantages of texting, it is a silent way of communicating. Therefore, you can be at a basketball game and instead of screaming into the phone to try and get the other person to hear you, you can just send them a quick text with no noise problems. The privacy of text messages is pretty safe for the most part, unless people are going through your phone and looking at your text messages. Another advantage is you can send out mass messages of texts, instead of calling each person individually, Depending on the conversation, texting can be an easy and quick way to communicate. Obviously, if you are going to be asking a bunch of questions and making a lot of decisions then, you might just want to call the person.
As with everything there are disadvantages it seems. Some disadvantages of texting is when the person sitting next to you in class or at a movie is texting away the whole time, it is annoying and rude. Text messages can be totally misunderstood. Some people may understand some words to have different meanings than what you are implying. Also, you do not get the full effect of what emotion or tone the person is using in their message like you do if you are on the phone or face to face with them. Texting while driving is the worst I feel. It is scary to think of how many people are texting while driving when you are driving on those same roads as them and they are not paying attention to driving because they are texting. Texting while driving can lead to serious accidents and possibly even death sometimes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDlYSPVro0Q Here is a link with a story of a girl who has only had her license for a few months and it shares the damages she has already done while texting and driving.
Starting with some advantages of texting, it is a silent way of communicating. Therefore, you can be at a basketball game and instead of screaming into the phone to try and get the other person to hear you, you can just send them a quick text with no noise problems. The privacy of text messages is pretty safe for the most part, unless people are going through your phone and looking at your text messages. Another advantage is you can send out mass messages of texts, instead of calling each person individually, Depending on the conversation, texting can be an easy and quick way to communicate. Obviously, if you are going to be asking a bunch of questions and making a lot of decisions then, you might just want to call the person.
As with everything there are disadvantages it seems. Some disadvantages of texting is when the person sitting next to you in class or at a movie is texting away the whole time, it is annoying and rude. Text messages can be totally misunderstood. Some people may understand some words to have different meanings than what you are implying. Also, you do not get the full effect of what emotion or tone the person is using in their message like you do if you are on the phone or face to face with them. Texting while driving is the worst I feel. It is scary to think of how many people are texting while driving when you are driving on those same roads as them and they are not paying attention to driving because they are texting. Texting while driving can lead to serious accidents and possibly even death sometimes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDlYSPVro0Q Here is a link with a story of a girl who has only had her license for a few months and it shares the damages she has already done while texting and driving.
Great post! I love text messaging. I actually probably text more often than I call people for most of the reasons that you listed on this blog, like the convenience of being able to talk to multiple people at once. I also really like it because I can have a conversation inbetween doing other things--though, driving is not one of them. That video of that girl was pretty amazing. It kind of seemed like she didn't care that she was putting her own and other innocent people's lives in danger. I think she should have her keys or her cellphone taken away. It's for her own good. Maybe one day she'll learn. It's scary to think that there's all sorts of people out there who constantly text and drive. It's nearly impossible for me to because I have a touch screen phone so I have to literally look at the screen the whole time I'm texting instead of just feeling the buttons.
ReplyDeleteKelsi,
ReplyDeleteI am guilty at texting while I drive. I try to never look down at my phone while I do it, but I know that doesn’t necessarily make it safe. I’m going to have to stop though, which may be a blessing in disguise, because in my home province of Manitoba it is now illegal to use your phone while driving; only hands-free talking is allowed. As far as privacy and texting goes, I don’t think it’s very private at all. I have had friends that have used the word bomb in a text and gotten a message from their provider to stop sending messages of that nature. There are certain key words that are flagged, and although someone may not sit and read through every message you send, it’s not as private as you might think.
Texting does have its advantages. Being a coach, and having multiple kids playing multiple sports, texting is the easiest way to stay in touch. Not everyone has instant access to their email but there is a very good chance that people always have their cell phone available. That does not mean that texting does not have it dangers as well and your photo hits it perfectly. I used to have a horrible habit of texting while driving. At work, anyone who drives for work in this class was a video that we watched that showed the dangers of texting and driving. A persons reaction is actually slower when texting and driving than while drinking and driving.
ReplyDeleteI agree that texting can be beneficial to a person in some circumstances. That being said I believe that driving requires a persons full attention this is not one place that a person can multi task.
ReplyDeleteThere is a video making the rounds on the internet the shows what happens to a young person when the try to text and drive a vehicle. It shows the person crashing and destroying a car. An example that hits home is the recent metro accident in DC where a train conductor was texting his girlfriend and crashed into another rail car killing several riders.
Texting while driving is dangerous.