Comments on: From introvert to textrovert

By: Karen Kenderes

Karen Kenderes — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 05:05:25 +0000

It is crazy how much I agree with everything in this article. The way technology has taken over our lives these days is ridiculous. It is so true that texting begins most relationships. It is a great way to get to know each other in a way that isn’t awkward so that when you go on the first date you already know a lot about one another. My phone broke over three weeks ago, and I haven’t bought a new one yet. It is sad to see how much I rely on my phone. I’ve met new friends that I cannot connect with because I can’t text them. I can’t wake up in the morning because my phone was my alarm. I can’t remind myself to take my pills in the afternoon because my phone’s reminder doesn’t sound anymore. I can’t text my existing friends to tell them that I’m coming over. I can’t even call them from someone else’s phone because having a list of contacts has allowed me to not have to memorize numbers anymore. I also agree that it is easier to text someone who is “weird” to talk to in person. Texting allows people to in a sense hide behind a curtain in life. However, in order to avoid a miscommunication, I add smiley’s in my texts so that people know what attitude I have at the moment. That way the person won’t read into it in a way that I did not intend. All in all, texting seems to make everything easier!

By: Perry Hawkins

Perry Hawkins — Fri, 07 May 2010 05:48:20 +0000

I personally still prefer a good old fashioned, wire to wire, plugged into the wall phone call. I think texting has improved our ability to communicate on a faster level. But it has done more than just expand, it has also caused a decrease in social skills. In our youth group I often find students engage much less than they used to. They are no longer to having face to face conversations. This may cause a decrease in students social skills.

By: shane henry

shane henry — Wed, 05 May 2010 04:08:32 +0000

This article is SO true in so many ways. First off, I prefer texting over calling. It is easier, faster, and I can text someone something important real quick while being in a nosy place or any other situations I could not call in. Second, my girlfriend and I first started talking in depth through text messages. She would send me flirty little happy faces and sweet good morning texts and I still get them today! However, sometimes it can be difficult to understand how people are trying to say a message through a text. Is someone saying “Hello” as in “hi” or “Hello” as in “are you serious”? Thirdly, I have definitely seen my peers spelling worsen as texting grows. I don’t know how many times I have been working on a group project and the paper will have abbreviations like “wat”, “ok”, “thru”. Texting has its positives and negatives just like everything else.

By: Monica DeLong

Monica DeLong — Mon, 03 May 2010 23:38:58 +0000

This is such a relevant topic of discussion and avenue for injury for college students and texting. This in my opinion is one of the most common forms of communication between college students and youth. It is more convenient to text someone, rather than calling someone. The reason? You can text someone with little interruption in the day. You can text someone while you are at work, in class and even when you are with someone else. This has brought up much debate over whether this is helping or hurting relationships and face-to-face communication. While texting is convenient and can be done without much interruption to the day, there are aspects of communication that can not be communicated through texting as with face-to-face communication such as non verbals and emotions. There is positive and negative aspects to texting someone, and although this is the means of communication, there is an aspect of communication that gets lost in translation through texting. To keep up with the way people communicate through technology versus face-to-face communication is to adapt, and look at the positive aspects an convenient accept or change the negative. Although I text my friends a good amount, it is, fast, and efficient, there is nothing that replaces the form of communication of face-to-face communication.

By: Shaun Sinift

Shaun Sinift — Sun, 02 May 2010 20:47:19 +0000

I cannot speak for my generation peers, but as far as my preference goes, texting is way overrated. Not only is it immensely more difficult to text someone 15 times than have a 10 second conversation over the phone, it costs more! OK, maybe I am just a cheap college student, but that adds up! I am not saying that texting does not have its perks. It is handy for situations where a phone conversation is not possible, or to send a reminder to someone without disrupting them, but it seems to me that texting has nearly taken over conversing orally these days. I can’t tell you how many times I hear the phrase, “OK sure, just text me and let me know.” We as young adults depend so heavily on texting these days, and it seems that the rest of the population does the same. It is a surprising phenomenon in a sense, but looking at the trend of social media that has consumed our society, it makes complete sense.

By: Amy Rich

Amy Rich — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 23:45:20 +0000

Being a fellow student in your intro into mass media, I remember this class discussion. I would still have to say that I prefer texting over calling. Personally I have denied friends’ phone calls because I could save time to text them instead while also accomplishing other tasks as well. However, just because I prefer texting over phone calls does not mean that I do not appreciate formal communication. I know how to be intentional about my relationships and put forth effort to create time to talk face to face. I would much rather talking to the person face to face than texting, if they were not a stranger. I agree that texting had become the easy way out of harsh rejection. I have caught myself even referring to texting in terms of “flirting”. I almost feel that if my generation was suddenly deprived of certain technology (i.e. Internet, cell phones, IPod’s, GPS) that we would be set back according to the relational world. I totally believe that our technological advances have created new, ingenious path ways of discovery; although it lacks the tangible, day-to-day personal connection with other humans for a personal connection with technology instead. I believe everyone becomes a “textrovert” whether over social networks or even emails. However, I do not have a ton of respect for the people who hide behind their “texts” “status’” “tweets” or “emails”. Texting has depleted the personable aspect of communication. Yes, it has become a new world out there but I believe too many young adults/college students have become overwhelmingly comfortable with hiding behind their technology and have forgotten the real world in general.

By: Erin Channing

Erin Channing — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:44:22 +0000

It’s funny how texting has just exploded as probably the most common form of communication after actual face-to-face conversation. I find there are days when I love texting and days where I hate it. I love it when I am busy and can multi-task. It’s great to be able to text anyone I need to communicate anytime without worrying about bothering them or them not calling you back. You can get across all the information you need to within one simple message. I also fell more in love with texting when I was dating someone seriously who didn’t go to the same school as me and who I only saw once a week. Texting was a way for us to feel close because we could be communicating all day long while we were at work or in class. Making plans with a group of people is done much easier with texting too. One can send out a text to as many people as they want and save themselves a bunch of phone calls. Now I have never been much of a phone person (I’m not huge on ‘small talk’ which I feel like dominates majority of phone conversations with anyone outside of close family and friends), so texting is often a preferable form of communication. On the other hand, I don’t think that texting should completely replace other forms of communication, such as talking on the phone. This is where I sometimes hate texting. There are some people out there who make me feel like texting is some sort of responsibility. As a friend has said to me “I didn’t choose this form of communication, it was forced upon me!” In some respects, I agree. Too often I have given my number to a guy, and rather than actually calling me and asking me out on a date like a man, they will choose the cowardly route of sending me an ambiguous text message such as “hey…” or “we should hang out sometime”. In every one of those occasions I don’t respond. There have been others who claim to be “textaholics” who will text me nearly 40 times a day, when I probably average like 30 total regularly. Again, it’s safe to say those people don’t last long with me. Basically, texting can be great when it comes to making plans with friends or classmates and to stay in communication with someone you care about when you can’t be on the phone; but I think it’s important that people don’t completely resort to texting for everything. We should still be able to call others and know how to talk on the phone, especially with our people we’re close with! Sometimes the informality of a text message is just completely inappropriate.

By: Kayla Bradanini

Kayla Bradanini — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:40:24 +0000

This article reminds me about something that my friends and I have discussed before, and that is what would we even do without texting? I know that it may come to a shock to many of the older generations but we have formed this codependency on the convenience of text messaging, facebook, myspace, and etc. My friends and I sat down one day and began talking about what it would look like to live without such conveniences. We came to a general consensus that it would be so strange, and that some of us might even go through withdrawls. I remember when I first got a cellphone and I started texting it was almost a competition as to who could get the most text messages in a day. Everyone was constantly texting and so by default you would create conversations so that you wouldnt get left out.
As far as texting being the initiator in a relationship, as sad as it may seem it is unbelievable common amongst most of the people that I know. My best friend once met this guy and they did the normal exchanging of numbers. From the moment that the exchange took place there were a list of questions that kept replaying through her mind : ” How long do you think it will take him to text me? Should I text him first? Maybe hes not interested if he doesnt text me within the first week?” These are all normal questions amongst this generation, and when you think of it in retrospect, in my opinion, it is really sad that this is how we get to know each other. I guess you could say once you go texting, you never go back.

By: Audrey Cook

Audrey Cook — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:26:43 +0000

I believe there is a lot of truth to this blog, most people would rather have a texting conversation than an actual one on the phone. Some say it takes the pressure off of the conversation being awkward or too long. Personally, I would much rather call someone if I have to tell them something or if I havent talked to them in awhile. It is good to hear their voice, their laugh and the tone in their actual expressions. I believe that a phone call is much more meaningful and it helps build relationships on a different level the way that texts cannot. On the other hand I think texting keeps relationships. I do text everyday, all day. Little “hello’s” or “Just was thinking about you-hope your doing well” are things that just let people know that you are still there anytime they need to talk to someone. Texting is very important. It builds self-esteem, it makes you feel like people are thinking about you, it makes you have the ability to keep your foot in a relationships when you have let them slide.. things like that. As far as the shy people being outgoing on texts, this is so accurate! I have had experience with people like this. This blog is 100% true and interesting to hear the opinions of others on this matter.

By: Mike Danielian

Mike Danielian — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:31:17 +0000

I myself am guilty of texting. Before texting was even invented people actually had emotion in them, i feel as though texting lacks emotion. You can say something and the person recieving it can interpret it differently. We rely on texting too much. We spend over hundreds of dollars a year just to say a couple words to someone instead of picking up the phone and speaking with the person. No wonder the world is in a money crisis. We are becoming more and more lazier as times goes on. We figure out short words like “btw” meaning by the way instead of actually typing it out or texting it to the person. The whole english language has changed because of our laziness. I am guilty of texting and hope that the face to face interactions become a major part of our younger generation. Texting has not caused anything good but has taken the lives to many people and have put many peoples lives in danger.