Unit 2 Portfolio

Is Texting Ruining the way we Communicate and Write?

      Take a look at the open apps on your phone. How many of them can be used to communicate with others? For me personally, I had messages, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat open on my iPhone. I'll be the first to admit that I spend a good portion of my day on my smartphone.  I am in constant contact with my friends via several different platforms. Whether I am updating my group chat on who I just saw on the quad, texting classmates about our group assignment or retweeting a recent news article, my life updates are frequently being sent out to various friends and followers on the Internet. I am in Generation Z and I believe phones represent a large portion of who we are as a generation. Furthermore, I believe the amount of time we spend on our phones is NOT ruining the way we communicate and write. Here's my list of benefits smartphones have on the way we communicate:

Our world is evolving, so is our language:

It's as simple as this, smartphones and texting are changing the way we communicate on a day to day basis. Smartphones are a relatively new technology, however that doesn't mean they are a bad thing. Furthermore, if a teenager has a smartphone that they text on constantly, that does not correlate to them being a bad writing in school and/or a at a job. In fact, texting has been used to actually help underprivileged students how to read and write. According to English Live, "writing an essay and writing a text are different things; however children can learn both. What is more, texting is being used to actually help literacy in developing countries: a UN SMS-based literacy program in Pakistan aims to help women in Islamabad to read. Now what’s so bad about that?" This shows that texting isn't a bad thing at all and in fact, is being used for education purposes by helping some individuals actually learn how to read and have the ability to communicate with one another. People  need to learn how to accept the fact that texting is a completely valid and normal way to communicate and express yourself with one another. 

We're simply just changing the way we communicate:

If you are reading this and are between the ages 16 and 24, I can guarantee you've been yelled at for being on your phone before. I myself, have been countless times by my mother. "Did you even hear anything I just said? That phone of yours is too distracting." she'll say. However, she is wrong. My phone isn't distracting me necessarily, its simply changing the way I communicate. Communication in today's age is constant, quick and never ending. While my generation is adopting to this new method seamlessly, older generations, such as my mothers, are having trouble grasping the concept. For example, why would I send a Thank You note to my grandma through snail mail, which will take a week to get to her in California, when I could email or text her in seconds and have her receive my gratitude almost instantly. My mom would say sending snail mail is more "respectful and shows more appreciation" but she simply doesn't understand that communication is ever-changing and that being quick and efficient is the new culture. 

Smartphones are more efficient at communication:

 Have you ever sat in a room before with a group of friends, however all of you are sitting on your phones staring at screens? One may think this is the concept of lost communication however they are wrong. While sitting silently in a room with 5 different people, I could be having 5 different conversations all at once. Sending memes to one friend, discussing homework problems with another, and having an emotional support conversation with a third. Phones and texting allows us to expand our abilities of communication. I could be having one spoken conversation or multiple ones over my device simultaneously. Having multiple conversations at once allows me to interact with more people throughout my day, whether its face to face or not. According to representatives from English Live, they stated, "Text messaging can be a fun and playful way to communicate – the important thing to remember for education is teaching children how to employ different ways of communication." People  need to learn how to accept texting as a completely valid and normal way to communicate because it is much more efficient compared to hand writing or spoken communication. I view being able to have multiple different conversation at once as a skill, one that should be learned in a technology age like today. 

Ability to send our thoughts our in seconds:

Communication vis smartphone is an amazing concept. If you asked me 15 years ago, I would have never believed that individuals would have the ability to share what they wrote with hundreds of different people, within a matter of minutes on the internet. This is a new concept that was never a thing of the past. Especially for writers, in the past it would be an entire process until a book was published and could be read by the world. However, this is all different now. Writers have the ability to share their work instantaneously on sites such as Wattpad. For example, one of my favorite authors on Wattpad is Natasha Preston. She has written several books that she posted on the site. Each one of her novels has great content, but does have a few grammar errors due to the fact that it doesn't go through months of editing. It's drafted, maybe read over once or twice then posted to the site for all to read. Natasha Preston became so popular on Wattpad that a publishing company published her work into physical books. However, the best thing about this all is that the publishing company left her work as is, grammar errors and all. Preston became a best selling author with a book that has grammar issues. Therefore, communication via smartphone and the internet is quick and to the point, and it can still be great and understood even with a few errors and this is why I love the story of how Natasha Preston became a printed author. 

Ability to power off our smartphone when needed:

Proponents to communication via smartphone say that it's ruining humans ability to have face to face interactions. According to Simon Hill with Digital Trends, he stated that "some people are becoming conversational cowards. They lack the willingness to have difficult face to face conversations, and they aren't cultivating those skills." However this statement doesn't make sense. I will be the first to say that I use my phone maybe a little more than I should. Staring at my screen into the late hours of the night until I can no longer hold my eyelids open. However, the time I spend on my phone is not hurting the way I interact with others in person. For those that have issues with self control when it comes to their smartphone, there are options to help limit your screen time. Apps such as Off The Grid and Locked give you the ability to lock your phone for a certain amount of time and will only open if an emergency button is activated. These apps are a great option when you want to take a break from the constant communication and have some "you time." I would agree that every once in a while it's nice to be disconnected from the world but with that said, my constant use of my smartphone isn't hurting my conversational skills. I along with other many individuals in Gen Z, are perfectly capable of putting the screen away and having a conversation whether that be with a parent, teacher or even a friend. Communication via smartphone is assisting us with these skills not hindering us. 

Smartphones provide a variety of writing formats:

There are so many different ways you can write things on the internet using you're smartphone. A simple text filled slang or a professional cover letter, there are so many different formats to share your mind. Communication via smartphone can be very casual and playful but can also be very professional and serious. You also have the ability to switch between these different formats within minutes. No other tool allows you to have this ability as well as smartphones do. This even applies to social media as well. I log onto instagram to share photos and comments about my life with my friends, then I log into my LinkedIn to check out the latest internship postings.  It's important to note that smartphones have this ability and not to think they are only used for social purposes that have no substance, because that is extremely false. Communication via smartphones is incredibly beneficial for many reasons due to the fact that there are many different formats that can be used.

Non-standard dialects are becoming the norm:

 As time goes on in our world, things change. Style, trends, norms and even the English language. After the boom of smartphones, slang language became very popular not only in texting but also in our day to day language (in teenagers especially). One might say the slang we use while communicating on our phones is making us dumb, however language is ever changing. Everyone is quick to jump the gun on how we shouldn't be using words like LOL and OMG yet no one ever talks about how nobody says words like doth or henceforth anymore. It's important to note that this new slang language doesn't represent stupidity, it simply represents a new time. If somebody came up to me and started using old words such as doth, I would feel uncomfortable whereas if somebody came up to me and used the word selfie, I wouldn't even second guess it. In an article by a Penn State scholar she noted that "our language and word choice has been adapted by a younger generation and I believe due to the age of Gen Z, its harder for older people to accept. However, as Gen Z becomes the new work force and adults, this will still be the language being used." She did a great job at summing up why people in Gen Z do not always get the support they should regarding topics of smartphones and communication. It comes to the point when I ask myself, when will the majority of our population accept that language changes with time, just like it did in the Shakespeare days? Slang is apart of the language of our time.

In conclusion, smartphones are a technology that should be celebrated. Since the first smartphones in the early 2000's to now, this technology has greatly broadened how we are able to communicate with others. Being able to share anything you write in a matter of seconds is actually a crazy concept. From a simple text, to an important email to even posting your own book to the internet, it can all be done at insane rates. As Gen Z becomes older and moves into the work force especially, I believe this is when communication via smartphone will continue to grow even more and become more widely accepted. Next, I would like to share a little story that further proves my point of this. I had already had this entire essay written. As I logged back into Blogger to edit it, the entire thing was gone, all 2000 words. With extreme anger boiling inside me I was able to DM my friends and text my mom about my problem. I notified 6 different people of my problem within the minute. Furthermore, within another few minutes I was more calmed down because all my friends had already responded telling me it would be okay. As I sit here, finishing my 2000 word essay for the second time, I couldn't be more grateful for the constant connection and communication I have to everyone on the internet. Lastly, I can't wait to see how smartphone communication and writing tools continue to expand to better our world. This technology is and will continue to be so important.