I remember when I was in middle school and my friends and I could not wait for the weekend. To go out to the movie theaters, to the game arcade or to one of our homes to bake some cupcakes and brownies. As we transitioned to high school we would still long for the oh, so awaited weekend, to watch some movies in our homes, play some video games and eat junk food, but with the beginning of smartphones we barely did those things, we got together to stay on our phones. Movie nights would end up with us taking pictures or practically ignoring each other.
Some friends and I created a group chat in the messaging app called “WhatsApp” and we would talk through there all day, every day. Yes, it got us closer in a way, but when we got together we did not talk as much as we did on the group chat.
Some of my relationships deteriorated because of our use of our phones. Eventually, we stopped hanging out because it just got complicated, this being one of the problems.
It stopped being about how amazing it felt to talk to each other face to face, to who could send the funniest picture or video to the chat. We got so disconnected from what was really important. In a way, I feel that we stopped being humans and more like robots. Conversations were short and awkward, and in the majority of them we would say “so hmm..” at least one time. We stopped caring about the warmth of deep conversations, how good it felt to hear someone laugh or seeing them smile.
Another problem is that we apparently stopped knowing about manners. We would stop a conversation just to take a picture, and leave the person that was talking feeling disrespected. We also ignored a person just to be on our phones, talking to another person.
While being so involved online, or texting, can have many disadvantages, it also has some advantages.
My best friend moved to New York when we ended freshmen year of high school. It felt like any other friendship that would end when the other person left, but it did not. Because of text messaging we became even closer.
Even now that I live in Omaha, and my friends live away from me, we still talk every single day, and every time I go back home it feels like we never were apart from each other.
I feel like we both lose and gain when we use texting rather than talking one-to-one. I have to admit that I am socially awkward. I cannot hold a conversation if it is not with a person that I am comfortable with, and I freak out when this happens. I think that my involvement with texting has caused this.
I believe that it is time that we stop texting so much when we can just have a wonderful conversation with a person face to face. In a way, we have lost our connection with humanity because of this. We have become so immersed in the text messaging world that we have stopped being social.
Thanks for reading!
Virginia Rodriguez 