Texting Zombies: Should Texting be Banned

The world of communication has become mobile in the last few years. This has had its benefits, in the form of allowing people to communicate with others in ways that were not possible before the advent of cell phone technology. Sadly, the benefits are being overshadowed by one area of mobile communication that has forced its ugly head to the forefront. Texting is becoming one of the main ways in which some people communicate, however, it is destroying other communication, as well as becoming an increasing cause of accidental death.

Texting is basically an email system for cell phones. Unlike email its practical applications are limited at best. It is a limited form of communication that is supplanting letter writing, actual phone calls, and even its big brother, email. The nature of text messaging is having an effect on the various languages of the world, taking them to a lower form. In texting sentences are reduced to acronyms. As such, texting’s place in business communication is laughable. Texting’s role in personal communication might be argued to have some merit, if it were not for its constant shifting between seriousness and levity, and between this friend or that.

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The invasiveness of texting can affect interpersonal relationships negatively, if one becomes so addicted to texting that they can not stop when they are having interactions with others in person. Many people who become addicted to texting do not stop when they are in the actual physical presence of their friends or family. For some, this addiction has had a negative effect in their ability to preform their jobs. Addiction to texting by employees, at times can have a drastic effect on the business they are employed at. This can come from lost sales because an employee is too busy texting to notice a customer, or, more direly, in the form of injury or death, due to an employee not paying attention to their task.

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We have all seen those people who walk around like zombies in a texting trance. One of them may have bumped into you on the street today, or you may be the one who bumped into someone because you were too busy texting to notice them. Unlike, talking on a cell phone, texting is not an activity that can be done with any degree of safety while in mobile state, such as walking. Talking and walking is one thing. Reading and texting while walking is quite another matter. There is no way of justifying this behavior. None! If what a person is texting does not necessitate sitting down, then it is not that important. The disrespect and potential physical harm of others, or one’s self that can be caused by texting while in a state of mobility is too great of a risk. If a person is not sitting down or standing in one spot, while texting, in a public place, they are showing a total lack of respect for the feelings and safety of others. This type of behavior may be having an impact, far before the initial lack of concern, in that it frames those doing this in the emotional state of being inconsiderate. Additionally, when you are texting, while trying to have another type of experience, you are not having that experience, you are having the experience of texting while the other experience continues around you. Texting, by nature, disallows simultaneous, meaningful, involvement in any experience other than itself.