By Jacob Kolkman Posted October, 22, 2008
These days, with the innovations of the cell phone, conversing regularly on the phone is starting to become a thing of the past. Now it’s all about the texting and the “lol” and the “omg”. To some, this new way of conversation is like a new religion or way of life while they sit at home at night resting sore thumbs. To others, it dumbing down the youth of today and erasing the way that we as humans communicate on a daily basis while destroying the Queen’s English.
No matter what your point of view on the subject is, people seem to have gone completely crazy for texting. While you used to have to pass a hand-written note across the classroom hoping that one of the couriers doesn’t read the message, and taking minutes to get half a conversation in before the end of class. Texting has offered a new handy little way through your cell phone to get the message not only to one person but you can have conversations with multiple people. In my book that makes paper and pencil-0 and texting-1.
While texting has been a godsend to students and teenagers everywhere it has been just as much of a burden to teachers. Teachers, in this new age of technology, have had to battle for the attention of their students over iPods and texting while in class. It has become such a problem that even the mere hint of a cell phone in one of their student’s hands has caused the school to adopt the policy of confiscating it on site. The question that is etched into the minds of teachers and administrators in this school is simple, ‘Why oh why are these kids so obsessed with texting?’
Is texting the new form of legal drug to today’s youth or is it not addicting as some would say? While I say that it is a great invention to simply pass quick messages back and forth at satellite-enabled speed, spending hours at a time waiting for the next message like you’re about to receive the key to the universe is something entirely different. So this reporter went out into the texting jungle we call Lowry High School and asked around to see what the big deal about this texting thing. Freshman, Jalynn Sauer says, “It’s just a fun and easy way to talk to people. Plus it’s a good way to keep in touch with people that you don’t get to talk to all the time.” Senior, Eric Robertson uses the line, “Texting is like Pringles once you pop you just can’t stop.”
Will we ever truly know why people are so “obsessed” with this texting phenomenon? Or is it not an obsession like some of us believe it to be but an actual addiction like the crack epidemic in the 1980s. Unless the government does some kind of study to prove why kids and adults alike are going crazy about texting I don’t think we will ever know the true cause of it all. But until then I guess just go with it and text your brains out before they find out it causes carpal tunnel or something.
