Iwrite- Kayla Beebout

Technology.  It is a part of our society, of our lives, and it is here to stay, for better or worse.  I’m not going to pretend that technology can’t be fun and useful, even life-saving.  But, at the same time, it can be detrimental to simple face-to-face interactions and relationships.  I believe that medical technology and computers and the Internet have allowed us as a society to improve our quality of life, but there is a price for everything.

Texting has had a negative impact on my life.  My mom talks sometimes about when boys used to have to call a girl’s home phone to talk to her, and he had to think about whether he cared enough to risk having to talk to the girl’s mother—or father.  Now, though, guys can have ways to contact several girls at their fingertips.  They don’t have to think about dealing with parents; they don’t even have to think about talking to one girl at a time!  I don’t know if anyone else has been in this situation, but allow me to present a scenario: a girl receives a text from a guy asking her what she’s doing or how things are going or something like that.  She responds, thinking a conversation will follow.  Soon though, all she’s getting are one-word answers, and she finds herself in the position of being expected to carry a conversation she didn’t even initiate.  Personally, I find that very annoying.  Now, before anyone gets angry at me, let me say that I know not every guy does this, and not every girl probably experiences this.  But I think it is a symptom of the lack of responsibility tied to sending off a text, or a tweet, or a Facebook message. 

Of course, there are other problems.  People can talk online and on phones, but people are starting to lose the ability to have real conversations.  It’s so much easier to type something out than to actually say it, isn’t it?  I know that I personally write better than I speak sometimes.  Text talk has leaked into normal conversation as well, replacing more powerful and meaningful words and phrases.

All in all, I believe that although technology can be a great thing, it has created a lack of responsibility and communication skills that may come back to burn us in the long run.