With the constant inventions of tools to make our lives easier, they are bound to be problems and disagreements about our new technology. Some say it is improving our way of living, such as David Crystal, while others argue that it is destroying our culture, such as Dana Stevens. This argument has been ongoing since the creation of the printing press, which I have no idea why. While it does cause people to become more introverted and anti-social, it also widens our range of knowledge. Technology, such as everything else in our world, has its cons and pros.
Yes, there is no denying that our society has evolved because of inventions such as the telephone, computer, cell phone, and laptop; these new inventions give us the ability to do things, which would have otherwise taken all day, in an hour. Even at this moment, I am using my two year old Dell laptop to write this essay. Even though they make our lives easier, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Technology is making our lives too easy, to the point where people are forgetting basic skills that contribute to a better society.
I was walking down a pathway on campus one day; while I was walking, I noticed a girl coming down the path as well. I looked up trying to make eye contact with her, so I could say hello. She turned her head away from direction and began digging into her pocket trying to fish-out her cell phone to avoid interacting with me. My first thought was how rude was that, then I began wondering why she would do that. I wasn’t going to ask her any personal questions, or follow her or anything, just a simple, “Hello, how are you doing?” Was she deaf? Did she not understand? Did her mother not teach her any manners? Then it hit me. She wasn’t accustom to this form of interaction because most people are used to responding to text messages such as, “yo watssup.”(Chast 347) Texting and instant messaging are the new form of person interaction.
With scenarios such as the one previously mentioned, I would quickly say, “Yes, get rid of all forms of technology; put them; cell phones, computers, laptops, ipads, ipod, video games, television, all in a barrel and burn them,” because people have lost all forms of social skills and have become completely zombified. They walk around with their heads down zoned into whatever technological device is in their hand, permanently plugged into the virtual world, so they forget how to behave in the “real” word. The slighted form of communication that’s not digital I just too much to handle. If that’s the effect of technology, I feel it’s not worth it, but when I have a three page paper due the next day, feeling can change.
Since technology rules our lives, it’s easy to find fault with it and complain, but that doesn’t mean we are going to stop going on Facebook, Twitter, KiK. In the passage “2b or not 2b,” David Crystal gives a quote from John Humphrys where he argues that, “Texters are vandals who are doing to our language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbors.’”(Crystal 336) Yes, Humphrys makes great point, but, as Crystal goes on to explain, there are definite pros to texting, as well as other forms of technology, that are being over looked. Crystal states that even though texting is something fundamentally new, the effects of it are not current at all, but they date back to the time of the printing press. We have always sought ways to shorten our words to make conversation easier and quicker, and I am pretty sure some people could have always lacked social skills. Some people are just opposed to change, so they complain and find something to blame. And like my grandfather, they will never see the benefits of the latest “do-what’s-it.”
After stating that the effects of texting are not limited to this era, Crystal gives examples where the increasing popularity of texting is helping improve our society. He states that because texters are able to break word down and are still understood that shows their awareness of