What are the benefits and disadvantagesof your texting culture?

Answer 1

The benefits of texting can be reduced to one primary reasoning: convenience. While one is texting, their attention is only diverted on 'N' off. All transferred information is easily reread through a simple scrolling action, eliminating the need for a pencil and paper or a particularly good memory. It is important to realize that most technological advances today are motivated by convenience; whether or not it relieves a real (or perceived) hardship heavily influences the marketability of a new technology. Texting can be seen as a form of voice mail in that it is -in a sense- a recording of someones message although it is in text format rather than audio. Because of this, a text can be sent to someone who does not have their phone with them, but that forgetful person will inevitably receive that text as soon as they check their messages.

The disadvantage of all this texting, according to those not of my generation, is that kids are not gaining the social skills they would normally develop if they did not text so often. A rebuttal to this would be that texting is rapidly becoming an integral part of the flow of information in society and that it is, in fact, in itself a social skill. It is somewhat frightening to see a table with a group of high school students staring at their phones and not each other though.