Imagine the situation. The person across the table from you has their phone in clear sight and is texting away. This can cause a rift in conversation and a lack of communication. We’ve all done it, paying more attention to the game or text on our phone than the person right in front of us. Whoever is texting may have extraordinary multitasking abilities but for most texters it can begin to block out what’s going on around them. It seems to be that most Americans have chosen texting as their main mode of communication and often tune out what is going on around them.

We’ve all gotten distracted by Angry Birds or the extremely exciting text from a friend. This becomes a problem when it becomes a habit. I too have been asked by my parents to put down my iPod when we’re having a family discussion. Sometimes we get so absorbed by the thing in front of us, we forget to pay any attention to the conversation at hand. What if you agreed to do something while also texting? There’s a possibility that you could have missed what the person actually said and land yourself in a sticky situation. Surveys show that “for friends, who for most teens make up the bulk of their conversational partners, text messaging was dominant, with 67% of text-using teens saying they are more likely to use their cell phone to text a friend than to call” (Teens) and statistics show that “typical or median cell owner in this age group sends or receives 50 messages per day” (Gentilviso).

The electronic centered society that we live in doesn’t draw much attention to the problem at hand. Many people agree that texting while talking isn’t a problem when its just a couple of friends who are trying to communicate with others and aren’t having an overly in depth conversation but when at dinner with family or with a work partner, it’s just rude. When we choose texting over talking, like many others out there, we choose to eliminate half of what makes a conversation, a conversation.
When texting or emailing someone, face to face emotion and body language is completely obliterated. Without the nonverbal communication we miss out on half the fun. An article on CNN’s website states, “The telephone call is a dying institution. The number of text messages sent monthly in the U.S. exploded from 14 billion in 2000 to 188 billion in 2010, according to a Pew Institute survey, and the trend shows no signs of abating” (Kluger). This means many more Americans have taken to texting as one of their primary modes of communication. Because of this we can miss expression on a friend’s face when someone tells them something wonderful or getting to share a reaction with them after they share with us. Every message we send during a conversation slows our reaction time as well as distracting us.
Along with the nonverbal communication, texting eliminates proper grammar. I don’t mean to sound like a teacher, going on about how we need to watch our grammar in places other than school but it’s important that we continue to keep an eye on it. When texting we often type things along the lines of gtg, hungry, brb. When we’re talking face to it’s much different with a sentence like: I’m going to go get something to eat, I’ll be right back. They mean the same thing and for texting purposes the first is much easier. When limited to 140-160 characters, we like to save space. But when texting abbreviations seep into our everyday lives, it becomes an issue. It creates a lack of communication and can often times be irritating. On Debate.org, a forum used to create surveys and gather opinions, it is stated that 62% of people believe that texting has “adverse effects on a person’s ability to communicate in other manners”. While that may not be a large majority, it shows that many people agree that by our choosing to text rather than to talk face to face, we have partially eliminated our other forms of communication as well as our ability to use them.
It feels terrible to be ignored. Imagine how the other person feels when you’re texting or playing a game and it could help break the habit. I think that if we all took the time to put down our phones, iPods, iPads and laptops we’d have a much more exciting time communicating. So put down the phone, meet up with a friend and have some fun. It’s not too late to break the cycle.