Ping…Ping…Ping… You just got a text, but where are
you? Are you in your car? Maybe in your bed? Or are you maybe in a class or at
work? Texting, like it or not, has become a major component in modern life
worldwide. This is an epidemic that has spread like wildfire since 1993 when
Nokia put out the world’s first text message capable phone. Since then we have
seen people quickly shift from phone calls and emails being the most common
ways to communicate to the world being so wrapped up in texting that it has its
own form of language and continues to evolve in its development of emojis and
even the ability to text games back and forth with people. There is a flipside
to every problem however and texting has its own darkness; Texting and driving.
Texting and driving kills multiple people every day despite them knowing the
risks. Drivers continue to text claiming that a crash simply won’t happen to
them. This epidemic, despite being undeniable, is one that people both love and
hate. Some people who predominantly text refuse to answer their phone and only
communicate via text. They are the
people who will respond quickly, regardless of whether or not they are
driving. Then there is another type of
person who won’t text because they don’t know how, or they feel as if the
practice is not personal enough.
Whichever camp you are in, texting can have an impact on your life. In
the end, we are forced to address the question for ourselves, is texting evil?
Or is it simply a good thing that is sometimes misused?
Texting is a fairly recent
development in human history. This revolutionary style of communication has
quickly encapsulated the world by providing a unique and quick way to chat with
one another. No longer do we speak face-to-face or even on the phone, we now
simply type the words and hit send. The development of texting technology must
be looked at as it fits into the history of the cell phone. The first cell
phone was invented by AT&T in nineteen forty-six (Gregerson 1). This first
mobile phone had some major challenges however as it could not run without an
extremely strong power source such as a car battery and only had a couple
channels that it could access (1). Although the technology made its debut in
the forties it did not have a major improvement until the early seventies when
Martin Cooper developed his mobile phone under the funding of Motorola. This
phone weighed over two pounds but it could be used to communicate with people
outside of a car or building for up to thirty-five minutes (1) which at the
time was unheard of. In nineteen ninety-two the first text ever sent was
transmitted by Neil Papworth (Erikson 1) and it was a message wishing a “Merry
Christmas” to Richard Jarvis (1). This was a major step towards the ease of
texting that we enjoy today. The next year Nokia came out with the first text
capable phone. Originally, in order to send a text you had to tap one button
many times to reach the letter you wanted before you could move onto your next
letter, and although the concept was easy to understand it took a long time to
send texts. In nineteen ninety-seven however, Nokia came out with the first
phone with a full keyboard (1). This development made massive improvement in
the speed and ease with which people texted. The first emoticon was invented in
nineteen ninety-nine by Shigetaka Kurita and could only be used on specific
platforms such as imode (A Brief History of the Emoji 1). This is not however
the milestone that shows a final shift into the texting style we love today;
the development that moved us fully into the smartphone age was the invention
of the iPhone by apple in 2007 (Erikson 1).
The iPhone had the first virtual
keyboard with autocorrect, and incidentally the most texts that had ever been
sent in America through 2007 were sent in 2007, as it was an all-time high for
texting (1). In recent years more
developments to change the world of texting have been made. We have seen the
introduction of apps such as gamepigeon which allows for groups to play games
via text as well as the creation of bitmoji which allows for people to have
emojis that look like they do so as to send facial expressions with your words.
These new additions to the world of texting have pushed it further ahead of
other ways to keep in touch as the most popular.
Socially, texting has
completely changed the way we communicate. This epidemic has infected almost
every modern person and changed how quickly and efficiently we can communicate.
In inner circles you see that people now can have conversations with large
groups or individually with others without ever having to be near someone or
even have the same moments of free time. For the current generation, texting
has allowed for the discussion of things amongst groups. For example if you
were in a larger group of people trying to communicate about an event that
everyone would be meeting up for, the
group chat allows the ability to effectively speak with multiple people at the
same time people who were living with entirely different schedules. This
example is one of many such examples and is relevant to most in the modern
world. Without the group chat many things that people do now would be almost
impossible.
How we receive news has also changed
with the development of texting, we receive alerts such as amber alerts and
flash flooding warnings has changed entirely. Texting has offered a way for
communities to be informed of things and to make sure people are prepared for
things such as flooding so that they can for example have their cars out of low
areas during a flood, or, to watch for a specific car make in the event of an
amber alert. Without these alerts many people would be caught completely
unaware and such disasters could not be swiftly dealt with. The way that people
as a whole communicate with one another has been altered by the introduction of
texting as a medium for information sharing.
Beyond the positives however,
texting has a dark side and we must also look at the other side of these social
changes. Many people have been lost from our communities and social groups due
to a texting and driving fatality. This style of conversing, although allowing
you to not look at information until you have a moment, is often viewed as
something that you must immediately respond to. Our groups have twisted this
into a replacement for the phone call and have placed upon it the same urgency
of response which you have in a spoken conversation. This means that many
people will text back even when doing another task requiring their full
attention such as driving. Texting and driving is the cause of one in every
four accidents in the USA and is ten times more likely to cause an accident
than drunk driving (Texting and Driving Accident Statistics- Distracted
Driving, 1). These statistics are a scary thing when you realize that many
people still disregard the risk and text while driving.
Texting has changed the world in which
we live more than almost any other recent innovation. We have seen our
professional and social communications completely altered from the world of
face-to-face conversations and phone calls to the realm of written words in a
conversational format. This practice spread like wildfire and continues to be
extremely prevalent today. This increase in texting has both bettered and
worsened our society and, people today can choose how texting will affect them
by how they use this technology.
Knowing the importance of texting
in today’s society prompts the question of whether anything could be improved.
Although there are already many benefits to texting, there are two problems which
soil texting’s reputation: texting and driving and the inability to use tone to
convey meaning. These glaring problems however, could be solved.
In order to solve the worldwide
problem of texting and driving, you really have to look at what could still
allow the communication without the risks that it currently poses. You cannot
force people to simply stop texting and driving, as laws meant to do this
already exist (Distracted Driving 1) and many people entirely disregard these
rules that are meant to protect them in order to send back that “Ok” or “LOL”.
On average about nine people die every day in America due to an accident caused
by texting and driving (Clerkin 1). This problem of people disregarding the
risk of texting and driving was clearly highlighted by an EverQuote survey in
which they found out that:
a whopping 96% of the study’s 2,300 drivers told the company that the
believed they were “responsible” on the roadways, final numbers revealed that
the exact same percentage of participants had used a phone while driving within
30 days of taking the survey—all together averaging 0.4 miles of staring at a
screen for every 11 miles driven.(Clerkin 1)
This
is a problem that continues to persist despite the awareness and the laws. People
simply refuse to acknowledge the risks they are incurring. In order to prevent
these deaths and injuries that texting and driving result in a solution will
need to be implemented which satisfies peoples need to stay connected while
keeping people from looking down, as just one letter could be the difference
between life and death. One way to do this would be to not only make Bluetooth
standard, but also to improve its quality and give it more functionality. If
car companies and technology companies chose to solve this epidemic, rather
than the government, the solution may be more cohesive with our extremely
connected world. Phones could automatically be put into airplane mode at a
certain speed unless plugged into a cord in your car. When plugged in, your car
would not only read your texts aloud to you, but would also allow you to
respond using voice commands. A survey suggested this solution to a survey to a
random sample of one hundred people and 98% of people agreed that this would
make them less likely to text and drive (Salsbury 1). This data shows that if
we as a society went from trying to ban texting and driving to simply trying to
make it safe, we may be able to prevent the premature deaths of over 3,285
people per year (Clerkin 1).
The other widespread problem of
texting being addressed is more detrimental to relationships rather than physical
health and safety. This problem is misunderstanding. Almost everyone has at one
point or another sent a text meant to be sarcastic or otherwise perceived
beyond the literal meaning of the words, which was misunderstood causing a rift
in a relationship. “This issue is something which can hurt someone now more
than ever before as our world runs more and more on communication and we rely
on each other’s opinions of us more than any other generation” (Salsbury 1).
One solution which could revolutionize texting by increasing both its relevance
and its accuracy is having fonts which convey the tone of voice with which the
person intended the text to have. This would allow for someone to be sarcastic,
passive aggressive or funny in a way which could be universally understood. In
order to see if this solution would be something that people can see as helping
them communicate on a daily basis, in a survey of a random sample of 100 people
the results for my question as to whether or not people could see this as helping
them communicate more effectively via text were that 93% of a random sample of
100 people said that this would benefit them (Salsbury 1). By improving this
aspect of texting, we could see the main communication style of the 21st
century become more relevant than ever before.
The hang-ups which have prevented
this communication from being used in lieu of all others or which have caused
the older generation to scoff at this universally connecting technology have
solutions but what has prevented their implementation? The main factor barring
the creation of functional solutions is money. “The people who would have to
solve the problems would be companies rather than the government and they
simply do not have to spend the money to sell the product”(Salsbury 1). With
this in mind many producers of technology simply do not see this issue as
imperative because in today’s current market it would cost more for them than
they would make.
In The Plague by Albert Camus
there were many references to the bubonic plague that mirrored his own personal
beliefs. He was a man who believed that
there was no purpose to life and that religion and organization were simply
ways people attempted to make sense of the absurd. With no purpose he believed
that the only true way to conquer the universe was to accept the absurdity,
rather than futilely attempt to make some semblance of sense out of our
meaningless existence (Simpson 1). Camus would likely think that texting was an
interesting concept with both positives and negatives. Camus would love the
individuality and freedom of texting, as he believed that “The only way to deal with
an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an
act of rebellion.”(Camus 1) Texting allows for people to share their
beliefs and have an outlet for their individuality through which they can rebel
against anything restricting their freedom, which is something Camus supported.
The problems that Camus would have with texting is that it can be used to
promote organization. Texting is used by churches and groups who discuss the
meaning of life and ways to find success in some way which Camus would describe
as working hard to make sense of something nonsensical.
Texting is the pinnacle of
communication technology of the current age. It is used by almost everyone and
offers a quick way to converse over long distances and time gaps. Despite all
of its innovation and its progressive nature, society must come to solve
texting’s problems in order to maximize its full potential as a medium for
communication. However, we cannot ignore its improvement to our society and
once we have solved these few issues we can ensure the best possible experience
for those using this technology.
Works Cited
“A
Brief History of the Emoji.” New York Post, New York Post, 21 July
2017, nypost.com/2017/07/21/a-brief-history-of-the-emoji/slide-1/.
“Albert Camus Quotes (Author of The
Stranger).” Goodreads, Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/957894.Albert_Camus.
Clerkin,
Bridget. “Deadly Distracted Driving Stats.” DMV.ORG Articles, DMV,
28 Apr. 2017, www.dmv.org/articles/death-by-text-message-stats-show-how-technology-is-killing-us/.
Erickson,
Christine. “A Brief History of Text Messaging.” Mashable, Mashable,
21 Sept. 2012, mashable.com/2012/09/21/text-messaging-history/#463NBPhmeZqk.
“|
GHSA.” Home, Governors Highway Association, 2017, www.ghsa.org/state-laws/issues/Distracted-Driving
Gregersen,
Erik. “Martin Cooper.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc., 4 Sept. 2017, www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Cooper.
Salsbury,
Lydia Faith. “Online Survey.” Online, 5 Apr. 2018.
Simpson,
David. “Albert Camus.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Internet
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, www.iep.utm.edu/camus/.
“Texting and Driving Accident Statistics -
Distracted Driving.” Edgarsnyder.com, Edgar Snyder and Associates, www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/cause-of-accident/cell-phone/cell-phone-statistics.html.
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