It was only a few months ago when I stepped out on a limb to
say that online communities have become the cause for real-life interactive
deficiencies in our culture.
We’re sitting in front of the computer screen or the
bathroom mirror for photo-ops for hours on end. Then once outside, we become
clumsy inadequate souls that clam up at the moment of verbal initiation.
Wow, I thought the internet was an issue. Being an Avatar
Socialite (or an AS for short) pales in comparison to the current scourge to
social development: text messaging.
Text messaging is society’s anti-social tool of mobile
choice; day minutes are spared, messages are short yet can be impactful (often
in the form of acronyms) and the vibration setting when it goes off in your
pocket can’t be beat.
But do you want to talk ignorant?
Text messaging has no bounds, no limits and up to this
point, no rules and/or regulations. For example, let’s say that you and I are
in the middle a conversation and my phone rings. If I decided to show my phone
any attention while you’re talking to me, you’d think of me as being rude,
especially if I put a finger up, turn away from you and answer the phone,
right?
Well not with text messaging. Since you don’t have to answer
your phone to check a text, you’d look at the screen, but not away from the
screen before completely reading the message. And that text better not be funny
or down right raunchy. If it is, right in the middle of your conversation, you’d
make your, “quick reply.” It only takes a second, right? Until one reply turns
into eight replies, and now the person who is actually sitting in front of you
feels left out.
The scourge of text messaging also happens in the setting of
automobiles. Let’s say that you’re the driver and I’m the passenger. We’re
having a conversation on our way to the restaurant when my phone vibrates. I
take out my phone to check the message. I laugh out loud to that message while
you were setting me up for a joke which I’ve subconsciously ignored.
I finish this anti-social banter by replying to that message.
Yes, ignorant to the core. My neck is on tilt, jamming my thumbs to the tune of
my ‘Qwerty’ keyboard. Now you, as the driver feeling some type of way, turn up
the volume on the music to drown me out. But even your sound system doesn’t
stand a chance. For one, I don’t need to hear in order to text message. It’s
nearly impossible to upend a text conversation, short of splashing a chemical
into the person’s eyes or crushing their thumbs with a sledgehammer.
And now, texting is not only crushing conversations to bits,
it is taking lives. Drivers of automobiles, who just can’t wait to answer their
texts when they get home, are causing disruptions behind the wheel. Motorists are
taking their eyes off the road for seconds at a time to receive the message,
then reply to the message without looking back at the road; yes, while the car
is still moving forward.
Last summer, five Fairport
High School students died in a head on
collision
with a tractor in EastBloomfield, NY, just
days after their graduation. Investigations showed that the driver was in the
midst of a back and forth, text messaging banter at the time of the accident.
Now although the authorities could not say for sure that it was the driver who
was having the conversation, they did state that texting can be a major
distraction while driving. One of the last texts sent during the conversation
was less than 30 seconds before a 911 call was made from the driver of the tractor
trailer.
And on the other end of the spectrum, a 19-year-old British
teenager by the name of Rachel Begg was sentenced to four years in prison for
the death of Maureen Waites (
64, grandmother). Records showed that on a rainynight, Rachel sent nine texts up to 15 minutes before rear ending Maureen,
sending her into a crash barrier.
So remember, “Saving texts, Can Save Lives.” I should really trademark that
statement.
Now that a majority of cell phone carriers are implementing
“Unlimited Texting” features to their monthly plans, I felt that it was
important to add caution to the texting movement.
Tips from the
Socialite
Save text messaging
for later when:
You’re talking to someone in-person. Great
conversation has everything to do with ascending energy. Just as you’d like to
be, the person that you’re conversing with would like to feel important; they’d
like to feel that their thoughts matter to you. How could you accomplish
ascending energy while reading and answering texts every five minutes? So yes,
it is wrong to answer a text during a date. If anything, at least ask to be
excused for a moment. Just don’t get lost in the process.
You’re at the dinner table, either at home or
out on the town. Your guest or your host will pick up on the fact that you’re
not paying attention to your surroundings. The easiest way to frustrate someone
is by showing them that you could care less for their generosity extended to
you. Each time that you insist that you are listening, yet you continue to ask
what was just said, you’ll witness what it means to disappoint someone in a
social setting. Plus, cell phone carriers won’t exchange phones that have
marinara sauce damage.
You’re attending a
funeral. Just because you cut the sound off on your phone, doesn’t mean
that you’re exempt from being noticed. Show some decency, why don’t ya’…
So tell me, when was the last time you were the
culprit of anti-social text messaging?