Sunday, October 21, 2012

Romantic Texting


Texting has become one of the fastest growing influences on the lives of young adults. Almost all of them have some sort of mobile device that contains the ability to send text messages. This increased use of texting has expanded into romantic relationships, and it has changed the dynamics of the way young couples interact. This form of new media has impacted popular culture by reducing face to face interactions and replacing more intimate forms of communication. This may ultimately lead to young adults lacking the ability to express themselves in a romantic fashion on a personal level.

            Texting is a much more convenient way to converse with other people, especially a romantic partner. It is not only simpler in terms of time and effort, but it is also undemanding emotionally. By sending a text message, a person does not need to deal with the negative and conflicting responses and emotions of their partner. At any time, they can simply ignore the text message or choose not to answer right away. In person, it would not be as easy to walk away from the dilemma, especially with the emotions of their partners in front of them. Young adults are naturally more inclined to avoid the realities of a problem. Therefore, by not having the obstacle of facing someone in person, they lack the skill of confronting these romantic issues head on. If they do manage to face the issue, it is usually not on a personal level. Aside from ignoring the emotions of their partner, texting can limit the revealing of feelings all together. Couples can bring up insecure topics through texting without worrying about revealing too much of their own sentiments on the issue. If they feel like their partner will react negatively, it is easier to avoid the problem by hiding their own feelings. This can cause bottled up emotions that can have a negative affect on the long term relationship. It also removes a sense of a connection, which is created by fully working out an issue. Sometimes emotions are not clear by the very nature of texting. It is impossible to see the true feelings of a partner, which are often given by non verbal cues such as body language and facial expressions. This lack of full communication may carry on for a long period of time, which otherwise may have been dealt with immediately in person. By not building up an effective way to communicate, young couples will lack the ability to fully work through problems and effectively express their inner wishes. This lack of effective communication does not only come from unclear emotions but also from fact that face to face interactions help to build up social skills and break down insecurities. Without this, relationships are hurt, especially between young adults. Over-all, texting causes many problems with clearly revealing emotions, especially on the romantic level of young adults.

            Texting has become an ever growing part of our society. The cell phone has improved and now allows for people to be able to send messages. The young romantic couple has used this and in doing so has negatively affected the way they interact. Instead of solving any issues that may arise, a partner has developed the idea that it is possible to just set the issue off to the side and talk about it later, instead of in person. This happens because they are afraid of how the other will react. Simply by using texting, the message is lost in a sense of uncertainty that ultimately damages the ability of young couples to develop the necessary skills to express themselves intimately.  

5 comments:

  1. I really like the topic that you choose to write about, and I feel that texting has very much changed the dynamic of personal relationships. I thought you had really well developed ideas. One point to consider is that if a couple texts too much they will not have as much to talk about in person because they already discussed the important stuff over texting. I think you are developing an amazing essay! Just be sure to reconnect the strong points you make to how the medium is the message! Great job!

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  2. I really like and find this topic interesting as well. I think so far what you are saying makes a lot of sense and anyone reading must find something in here that resonates personally. I wonder if it will be hard to expand on this topic though. HAve you found any evidence (either anecdotal or scientific) that you can include to sort of "beef up" your hypothesis? I think it would be interesting also to include how young people growing up in with texting, which ultimately insulates them from other forms of communication, have trouble in other areas as well. Not just romantically, but also professionally. For instance, I know of kids who quit their jobs through text, which is just bizarre. If you do decide to focus on just the implications of texting as far as personal relationships, I think you must include something about sexting and how young people are changing the face of our society and putting themselves at risk.

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  3. I, and I believe that many others as well, have had or will have some kind of personal experience related to this issue. For me it lead to a break-up :/ I think that you hit very relevant key points in what negative effects texting has on relationships, and I find that they are true. I mostly have structural comments to give you. I find your body paragraph informative but unstructured and a little confusing as there are many different topics and facets of texting in the same paragraph. I advice that you break it up!
    More over, I think that your thesis is good and strong, and that you support well with your one body paragraph. An idea might be to include that there may be many different messages imbedded in the same medium... Good luck and see you Monday! :p I might join your group for a little as mine is mean to me ;) hahahaha have a good weekend

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    1. You have really good ideas here. When you text it isn't as personal as it could be and that can lead to many problems; one being what you have mentioned. While I don't like the touchy feel emotions thing and would love to be able to just ignore someone or say I didn't "Get the message" I do think that anything personal and has something to do with a relationship should be said in person. When you're texting someone you can definitely put up a wall that doesn't allow people to see or read for that matter how you're really feeling. You get to choose and really think about what you're going to say next instead of having to have an answer right on the spot like you would if you were talking face to face. I really like what you have so far!

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  4. Very good beginning to your analysis. I think it would be nice if you devloped a counter-argument regarding the fact that texting has brought couples together and opened up a whole new media of social exchange, especially in the early stages of a relationship when just getting to know someone. I think it's be nice to see you present valid points to counter this argument. Overall I agree with your conclusions and wish you luck on the essay.

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