Is speaking a lost communication?

[Motorhead350]

This has been bugging me for a while and today really set me off so please allow me to express my views. It seems like in the past two years people do not wish to speak to one another they seem to want to do it through modern technology. For example, if you call someone and they don't pick up you leave a message and would get a call back right? Well not really so much around people my age. You will get a text message as your reply rather than actually speaking to the person. Sometimes I will leave a message saying Call Me Back do not text me and sure enough your will get a text. Some will send out a text to many people at once with maybe a message for what time of year it is. When you respond they will start on conversation. One time I even said if you want to talk to me CALL ME. Sure enough no call since then.

I don't know how many of us get in these stupid ruts too, but if you call someone and not only do they not get back to you until several days later, you will get a email, myspace or facebook message saying why that person failed to get back to you when in reality they still have not because they didn't call. Seems like people are just avoiding people so much these days no one knows what's going on.

Today I was at school and needed to speak to someone because I still cannnot sign up for classes over the internet. I found the right office and was I needed to book an apointment. I neglected to mention that I called the big cheese 3 times in the past week with no return call. The person at the desk said I needed to email this person. Could I book an apointment since I'm at the office anyway? No all apointments are done though email through all of the staff. Thats F-ing B.S.! :mad2: I made the effort to call and now track down, but that still isn't good enough. What has become of the modern world? Heck I still make records in a notebook as suppose to something that needs batterys to operate. I still keep all my songs that I write in paper as suppose to my computer and guess what? I had to replace the hardware a few months ago. My notebooks never crash and always seem to work as fast and as well as the day I bought them.

Also I know I am typing this out so you don't have to mention that I am not calling you guys and girls to discuss this subject.

Rant over! Any thoughts?

[Breadfan]

You are right technology is changing the way we communicate, the sometimes unintended changes like those you have mentioned above are due to something called the "human factor" which essentially is how culture and society drive the use of a peice of technology.

All of the high tech devices you speak of aide us in getting more done easier. They make data easier to get, easier to share, and put us in "more communication."

However the unintended consequence that is driven by humanity is the ability to change the nature of how we communicate. I would even go as far as to say that it makes us "socially lazy." In addition, often times there is less perceived risk in high tech communications - for instance meeting someone new, you may be shy in person but able to write a "cool" email...and dissapointing news is easier to pass along when you don't see someone's reaction.

It's simply easier to text, write an email, or setup a recorded message than it is to interact on a truly personal level.

The technologies can make communication faster or able to occur over long distances, but it cannot yet fully replace the human aspect.

For instance, a face to face conversation is probably one of the highest points of full communication. We transmit our thoughts verbally, but beyond processing the spoken word we can also process smaller things such as intonation and inflection which can solidify or even change the meaning of words. In addition we get visual stimulation such as body language that can alter the impact of a conversation.

Technology permits communication to be easir and further apart but as of our current technology we still lose many of these "background communication" items in the process.

For instance, move to a phone. You still get verbal communication, and also intonation and inflection for the most part. It also lets you talk to someone you could not speak to face to face. But you lose the body language and other phyiscal attributes you get from face to face.

Go to email, you've now lost both the physical aspect as well as the verbal aspect. Now you see the words only, making it harder to interpret some meanings. (Written language can replace some of this by various grammatical methods, but it's still different than a phone converstation.)

Move to txt message, the worst of them all. Oops, did I just spell text "txt"?

Texting allows many to carry on conversations throughout the day almost irregardless of what they may be doing or where they are. But in the process we lose the physical, verbal, and now most of the written aspect of the communication. That's right, you lose tons of the meaning in the written words, becasue now a text is usually broken sentences, abbreviations, and letters to represent words. Yes culture has adapted to provide methods to convey emotion and meaning even over txt-ing but while this has happened there is a much smaller pallet of options for doing so.

[FordNut]

I do not text. I actually had it disabled by my cell phone service provider because I occasionally would get "spam" text messages.

[KillJoy]

Like sending a Thanksgiving wish as a TXT?

Hmmmmmm.....

;)

KillJoy

[Local Boy]

Very good Breadfan...You are absolutly correct on ALL points...


ALOHA

[J D]

I here ya motor head, and its good to hear it from someone in my age group. I personally hate texting too. One time, this semester I tried to buy this book thats out of print or outrageously expensive and I tried facebook, found the book for sale cheap from this girl, and wrote her, she said its still up for grabs. I told here to meet me at the cafeteria and that my phone number is . . . I get there the next day and she doesn't show. Email her back and she tells me to text her. I tell her just to name a time and place and she say back its in her car just ext to let her know. I call her the next day and no answer. Repeat several times, and email here back that night. She says something came up and just text her the next day.

Long story short, I break and text her that afternoon, 5 mins later she pops up with the book, more than a week after this began. And this isn't the only thing, many of my old HS friends have converted to texting as their sole means of contact, which annoys me to no end. Though I must say I do more than my fair share IM with AIM, MSN and Yahoo

But yeah once again its good to hear a guy from my age is not the only one who despises how much communication as dehumanized.

[Motorhead350]

Like sending a Thanksgiving wish as a TXT?

Hmmmmmm.....

;)

KillJoy

Steve you are good at answering and calling back. I sent you a picture with a message, we didn't have a conversation.... we didn't go that far you silly goose. :)

[freakstatus]

Anyone see that old Saturday night Live clip with Will Ferrell and Cheri O'Terri, where thay are talk show hosts on a morning talk show and the telestrator breaks down and they go crazy cause they don't know what to do do next? We are getting so much more dependant on technology each day...kind of scary.

[duhtroll]

Me either - I think texting is the lowest form of communication. I have had ours turned off (mine and wife's) since texting has existed.

Jay Leno put two guys with cell phones across the stage from two guys with morse code. He gave both teams the same message and told them to see who could get it sent faster.

Guess who won?

That said, there IS one use for text messages. When you are in a loud room or a very quiet room, where voice would be either unheard or overly annoying, texting is useful.

Personally, I'd rather the idiots at the next table in the restaurant were texting each other than talking on their phones a-la Kenny Tarmac.

(when talker is glared/stared at) "Excuse me, this is a private conversation."

(me) "You're in public. What *did* she wear to the concert, because the rest of my table wants to know."


I do not text. I actually had it disabled by my cell phone service provider because I occasionally would get "spam" text messages.

[ckadiddle]

I agree that things are changing, and not necessarily for the better. I don't do texting, but I have a slew of personal email accounts that I check daily and a few more that I check monthly. I gotta cut down! Plus I check in here at mm.net usually at least twice daily.

[MarauderTJA]

We all all basically texting now:D. Yes, communication has changed, but unquestionably for the better IMO. Texting has its place as I use it when I need to send a message and it does not require further explaination. With me being on the road a lot, the internet, cell phone and texting has been great, compared to the older days with a pager and looking for a payphone. Keeping in touch with family, friends and business with the communication technology today and tomorrow is only going to get better. Who does not have a cell phone today??? Remember the old bag phones? My Treo 755P has high speed internet, TV and I also love my IPod Nano for my music, which is the size of a large matchbook, works with my computer & cell phone and is great on the plane as well as at the airport here in Chicago where I am now (brrr). Gotta love technology:up:.

[quota]

I am probably "old school" and I prefer a straight, face to face communication.

Nevertheless, I believe that living without the internet/messaging technologies is now impossible. They came and still go together with other factors that increased the physical distances between the people. Name it globalization or whatever. Business wise, partners are sometimes thousand miles away from each other. More and more people are constantly moving. Not to the neighborhood, but hundred miles away from their initial place. And not once in their life. Staying in touch the "old way" is hardly possible. Internet and messaging are generally coming up with flat and colourless communications. But they are easy, they do not oblige you to wake up at night (time difference), they leave you time for reacting, they do not even oblige you to answer, and they are very cheap compared to the old way.

Now, there is "use" and "abuse". The concerned technologies are fitting too well with our cultural individualism. Also they are, still today, fashionable. So they spread wide and fast particularly among the younger generations.

Looking at the social impact in a couple of years will be very interesting.

JP

[Aren Jay]

There is me sitting in the movie theatre trying to watch spiderman III as the kids all have their cellphone screens glowing and they are bluetooth text messaging each other.

There is me sitting at a light watching a group of 6 early teen girls standing in a circle all texting each other. No-one says anything except maybe to giggle.

There is me talking to a bunch of friends I have never met on the internet typing like the fiend I am, when I type, making good use of those typing classes I took back in grade 7. (7th grade). We typed on typewriters back then.

There is me wanting people to email me, because I hate talking on the phone. Yet nobody reads the message I send them. Just the first part. I get a message telling me one thing not the three things I wanted to know.

[RoyLPita]

I do not text back because I do not feel like paying extra per each one. I might upgrade phones one day but texting I can do without.