While the popularity of texting may have caught us by surprise, we need not be caught off guard by its effects on our teens. The harmful end results are perhaps more encompassing than those more immediate and obvious.
On the surface, are the more commonly understood ill effects of texting. As anyone who has seen a teen engaged in it can attest, texting inspires an almost compulsive or cult like obsession. One punches a text into a cell phone, eyes fully focused on a tiny screen, punching at the keypad with almost flawless skill, he hits the send button, then waits meditatively for a reply. The time gap between the text sent and text received is often lost to the teen, as all he can think about is that impending reply. Thus any word spoken to the teen at this moment, be it from a parent or a teacher, are oftentimes words wasted, as the youth’s attention has been momentarily distracted. He finally receives the reply he’s been awaiting, and then he’s at it again with another text. As we can, it has become endless cycle that often begins from the child’s awakening well into the night.
Far more than merely distracting though, the greater evil that may come from teenagers’ texting may be that their thinking abilities are being stunted. As they continue to rely upon gadgets to fill in the blanks for their writing, and emoticons to substitute for their internal feelings, texting becomes less a means of self expression, and more of a means to homogenize their viewpoints, and disrupt their natural thought patterns.
Some scientists feel that this makes the children more likely to be impulsive, and to not think in situations where they otherwise would. They assert that ultimately teens that text will be inclined toward making rash decisions. Some of which may even include some minor criminal conduct.
In the long run, will they for example seek shortcuts in life, skipping necessary steps to achieve a faster end result? Will they be able to construct full, rather than fragmented sentences? Or will they have been crippled by the very technology that aimed to allow them to communicate with more ease?
If texting lasts, in a few years we will have the answers to some of these questions, but if these scientists are correct on their assumptions, by then it will be too late.
