In today’s generation, everyone is physically attached to their cell phones. They don’t leave home without them – and when they do, they feel absolutely naked, detached and separated from the world and everyone in it.
Most people can’t imagine the days where cell phones and text messaging didn’t exist. If someone didn’t know where you were and what you were doing 24/7, would you be okay? Would you survive? Would you still be able to breathe?
How many times do you check your phone a day? Be honest with me.
How many times do you check your phone a day to see if someone has texted you, texted you back or wanting to talk to someone at that very moment in time? I bet you that you’re embarrassed to admit the true answer.
Text messaging is destroying the way that people live their lives. Sure, it’s convenient to be able to communicate with someone anytime, anywhere when you need them. But, that’s not what text messaging has become. Long gone are the days where you texted someone an important question or needed to speak to them about something that’s an emergency. Because, lets be honest, if it was super dire – you’d actually call them for once in your life.
But, texting has become something completely different. Instead of being something to use when needed, it’s become something we need to do.
It’s created two big problems within society today:
The first problem is that no one knows how to be alone anymore. Instead, we’ve created a society of people who are codependent and cannot function without other people. It’s ruined individual’s independence and power to stand with themselves, by themselves.
When have you spent a night at home, by yourself, alone, without texting someone the entire time? When have you been able to shut off your phone and not communicate with other people? When have you received really great news and not texted someone immediately? We’ve lost the pleasure of solitude. It hinders our growth as individuals. Now, when we enter the world of friendships and relationships, we come off as dependent and needy, because we’re unsure of how to function on our own.
It also hurts our growth within these types of relationships. When we’re with someone and they don’t show us enough attention via text messaging, we start to feel jaded and ignored. Instead of realizing that not everyone lives on their phones 24/7, we look for someone new to entertain us via text. This isn’t healthy – it’s a form of emotional cheating and you shouldn’t need someone to be up your ass all the goddamn time to feel validated or satisfied in your life.
The second problem it creates is the notion that everyone is available all day, everyday.
Society has created an “appropriate timeline,” of texting. People are now under the impression that if someone doesn’t answer their text message in an “appropriate amount of time,” they can take it as a message that they are being ignored. From there, they begin to wonder just why they’re being ignored and why the person isn’t answering them right away.
On the other side, people feel the need to apologize if they don’t respond to another’s text in the “timely fashion.” They feel the need to apologize for living outside of their phones.
Do you see what’s wrong with this picture?
People are finding it necessary to apologize for living.
Texting has created the notion that everyone is available for each other 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s horsesh*t. No one should ever be dispensable to another person that often (besides your own self). We shouldn’t be expected to be constantly in conversation with other people all of the time, and we shouldn’t be punished by people if we aren’t accessible to them all of the time.
We need time for ourselves. We need time to breathe. We need time to live.