Me, My phone and I

Human relationships are complicated, no doubt about it but adding in interactions with one another through your phone makes it all the more complicated. The reason for this? Emotion. Showing human emotions and voice inflection is basically impossible talking though text. Even with the use of emojis it is so difficult to actually understand the inflection of the person you are messaging.

I agree with what Sherry Tukle talks about in her TedTalk , when speaking on texting interactions. She speaks on how texting is very useful when trying to rely simple information such as plans and time but when it’s trying to be used to get to know someone it doesn’t allow people to reach that same connection. I know that as a person who is very sarcastic it is difficult to translate the sarcasm into text most of the time, which leads to lots of miscommunication. Sarcasm comes a lot from the inflection and tone in a person’s voice and I can’t really do that when texting.

In an article on https://www.alligator.org/opinion/columns/too-much-texting-hinders-real-life-connections/article_aa9e6f6e-dcde-11e4-b6f5-cbf7f843a7b7.html the author says “we need to be careful not to let texting replace the more genuine and meaningful ways of connecting with other people.” I agree with this statement in many ways because I believe you can’t truly show your personality and who you are by only texting. Using your phone or technology for an “online” relationship isn’t all bad, in fact I think that having technology to connect to others is great. A good example that I have of this is keeping a long distance relationship. My boyfriend and I of over 3 years have been able to stay connected with each other while going to separate colleges by being able to message and Snapchat each other. The downfall of not having that real life, face to face connection all the time is communication gets a little messy. We have had plenty of arguments over things that wouldn’t have even happened if it weren’t for the text messaging miscommunication. It could be from the missing of tone, facial expression, or voice inflection. All of that stuff is what makes up conversations in face to face interactions. In this article https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-novel-perspective/201301/the-trouble-texting a “UCLA professor Albert Mehrabian found that 58 percent of communication is through body language, 35 percent through vocal tone, pitch, and emphasis, and a mere 7 percent through content of the message.” This shows how important face to face interaction really is and trying to solve an argument without all of these things makes it feel impossible.

I do believe having your phone to be able to keep connections that you otherwise might not be able to have is amazing. I also believe it is a hundred percent necessary to have that real life connection with someone to truly get to know them as a person. In my JRM class we were talking about texting also allows a person to create an image of themselves however they want to be seen. In real life when you’re having a conversation you don’t really have time to stop and think about what you want to say. When texting you can type and then delete what you typed and then retype and then send what you want to say but in real life conversations their isn’t a “delete” button but our flaws as a human are what makes us human.