We are in a world where communications are so much different than they were just ten years ago. If you wanted to talk with someone you used to have just two options. You could see someone in person, or you could call them on their home phone line. Today, you have email and other online ways to communicate, and you also have your mobile phone. You can call someone right up, but many use the wireless text messaging system that comes with many plans. This is great, but there are some downfalls to relying on it for all of your conversations with others.
Email is different than your wireless text messaging, but in a way it is still the same. Some had problems - and still do - with being misunderstood through such means of reaching others. When you are talking with someone face to face, or even over the phone, the meaning of what you are saying is usually very clear. With email and wireless text messaging, however, that meaning can be lost, and can even come out the opposite of what you intended. You really have to be careful with that.
The problem is that it is hard to show emotion in text that naturally comes across when you are speaking. Someone can literally take a joke that is meant to make them smile as an insult. That means they get upset and you have no idea why. You may also say something the wrong way, but do not have the benefit of their reaction to correct it. That means a delay in fixing the communication, and perhaps the beginning of some very hard feelings. Many use emoticons in emails to fix this, but those are not quite as common in wireless text messaging as of yet.
Wireless text messaging can be great when you have to say a few things to someone, but do not have the time to make a phone call. If you want to be sure your plans are still a go, sending a text message is a great way to confirm. However, if you are upset with someone for something they did, you should pick up the phone rather than send a text. Having a conversation about something important through wireless text messaging can be next to impossible. In fact, you are more likely to make things worse this way than if you dont skip the text messages and dialed the phone.
Another problem with wireless text messaging is that some rely on it so much they forget how to interact with people when they see them face to face. This is a newer phenomenon that takes many by surprise. If you love to use text messages, go ahead. However, you should always make sure you have time to see friends in person as often as possible. It is one thing to use wireless text messaging to keep up each day, but it is quite another to have a relationship based on nothing more. Real people are definitely more fun than a phone.
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