Methodists Against Text Messaging
from the this-sounds-familiar dept
It’s amazing to me after all these years that we still have people who decide to complain that the internet or some related technology makes people interact less. The latest is the new head of the Methodist Church who is complaining that people don’t interact with each other because they’re sending text messages to each other instead of talking to them face to face. That they may be text messaging with interesting people they might not otherwise be able to talk to doesn’t seem to occur to him. That they may be text messaging with people who they in a way that lets them have more detailed, more educational, more interesting conversations doesn’t seem to occur to him either. There’s this awful assumption that a “different” form of communication must be worse.
Comments on “Methodists Against Text Messaging”
Low tech causes this too
Have you noticed that newer houses (at least around where I live) seldom have front porches? They all have decks or patios though. No one sits out on their front porch interacting with neighbors anymore. Air conditioners are another example. Why go out and sweat with the neighbors when you can sit in a cool house watching TV?
m-Nolife
> There’s this awful assumption that a “different” form of communication must be worse.
There’s also an awful assumption that anything new is superior to anything old.
> That they may be text messaging with people who they in a way that lets them have more detailed, more educational, more interesting conversations doesn’t seem to occur to him either.
How does text messaging make someone more expressive, better able to learn or interesting when compared to speech? Would the war on terror go better if the military had an m-Life? Would Einstein have been smarter if he had a Motorola 2-way pager? Text Messaging lets those with social anxieties avoid their problems and children to pretend they are like so totally cool and stuff.
Re: m-Nolife
My point isn’t necessarily that one is better than the other, but that the technology is simply a tool. Some people use it to do things better, some people use it to do things worse. Blaming the technology alone is a waste of time.
Re: Re: m-Nolife
I have just decided to discontinue my text messaging service for I am a non-believer on the uses of text messages. Before many of us would say, “I’m just a phone call away” to acknowledge the ease of communicating with each other despite the distance apart. Nowadays, things have gone simpler, less direct, and less personal. Many people use text messaging to keep in touch with disregard to any phone call. It’s the simplest form of communication nowadays and I totally disagree with it. During the first years of communication, messengers would travel for days to deliver an in depth scroll..with responses to come numerous days later. Many hoped there would be an easier way of communication that linked the joy of a human voice, and ongoin communication. At the present, text messaging has been introduced and this freedom of communication is taken for granted. I firmly believe if you are a friend of mine and care for me, you’ll neglect the ease and impersonal forms of text and instead dial those seven digits to at least have a simple conversation, rather then the 30 seconds people use to text and keep in touch. Friends are worth more then 30 seconds arent they? If they aren’t..then obviously they arent what you call friends.