Paper in progress

Technology, today, is at a stage of advancement the likes of which humans have never seen. We have screens that can be activated by the touch of a finger and we can send text messages into the ether and to our friends in a matter of seconds. But, is this technology moving faster than we are? Though technology is making our lives easier, I would say that we may be worse off for it.  

People have smart phones, but I don't think it makes them smarter. We have social media and the ability to have any piece of information on a screen in an instant. So I find it ironic that people have lost the ability to speak properly or type properly. Now, let me be clear, I have a smart phone too. So, I don't want you thinking that I'm raining judgment down on anyone from some twisted sense of a moral high ground. No. I have a smartphone. It has both a Facebook and a Twitter app. I do the whole social media thing, so I am a victim of this too. I just think it's a sad irony that a society that spends a huge amount of its time typing or reading things will use abbreviated terms outside of the realm of the text message. I have heard people say "Lol", either pronouncing it a word or spelling it. But they don't this ironically, they mean to "laugh out loud" but instead find it easier to just say "lol". Hell, I say it. But, I am using it as a joke.

          But what affect does this have on people? So what that people use texting language in their own speech? Who cares? Well, I do. Texting originally was plagued with a character limit and therefore required abbreviation to make room for other characters. But now technology has moved further and we can now send full paragraphs of text to someone from a device that fits in our pockets. So it boggles my mind why we still write "u" when we mean to write "you" or that most people either don't know the difference between "your" and you're" ( some will avoid getting wrong by getting both wrong and writing "yur", which is then context sensitive.). Character limitations may not solely be the one to blame. No. The fast paced lifestyle that we face today has some part to play. I'll admit that I find it faster to type "u" instead of "you". But because we are typing a message with the aim of getting out there as fast as possible not only do we limit our spelling ability, but we hinder our vocabularies as well. It is far easier to type "this blog sucks" than to type "I am not amused by the opinions put forth by this blog". I know no one really talks like the latter and is modern technology to blame? Maybe. I'm just saying that maybe we should be more sophisticated in our text messaging because it's not enough to just say what you want quickly but it is just as important to use the right words, regardless of how long it takes to type.

We are so focused on getting our messages out into the ether. We don’t say what we mean. If we were to have a face-to-face conversation, I would need to be able to communicate what I mean. This would involve me having to select just the right words for what I truly want to say. However, we just want to say something as quickly as we can. As Sherry Turkle writes, “face-to-face conversation unfolds slowly. It teaches patience” and “as we ramp up the volume and velocity of online connections, we start to expect faster answers. To get these, we ask one another simpler questions; we dumb down our communications, even on the most important matters”. This leads to a lack of reflection on our thoughts and feelings before we respond. We want to ensure, and be assured, that someone is there and that we aren't alone.

In a real life conversation, I also need to be aware of how my words affect you. I need to have empathy. In other words, I need to mean what I say. When we talk to each other using technology, there is a new barrier that emerges. This barrier prevents me from seeing the true impact of my words and all empathy is gone. When words pop up in a text message, they don’t have tone. With this lack of tone, it makes interpreting a text that much more difficult.  How can one, realistically, interpret sarcasm when it’s texted to them?  Tone is an important part of face-to-face conversation. It helps reveal the speaker’s emotions. Turlke states that, in conversation, “we can attend to tone and nuance” and “we are called upon to see things from another’s point of view”. Seeing things from the other person’s perspective is lost when we use only technology to communicate. We have no real idea of how the sender is feeling as we look at the words on a screen. We just take the words at face value and we try not to dig too deep into what we read.