The Texting Epidemic: Fast and Convenient, or Distracting and Detrimental?

Texting. A blessing? Or a curse? Talk to almost any teenager - if you can manage a face-to-face conversation with them, that is- and you will probably hear that texting is one of the greatest technological achievements known to mankind. Except for the Internet, of course.

And, in a way, they're right. With texting, you can carry on a full conversation with one, two, or twenty people at any given time. Another added benefit is the ability to converse with friends and family without using up your precious minutes or having to speak aloud in situations where you aren't supposed to be talking at all, such as during school or business meetings.

Texting is fast, cheap, and effective. Instead of waiting several seconds or even minutes for someone to pick up the phone, all you need to do is send a quick text and wait for the person to respond while you go about your everyday activities.

However, as useful as texting may seem at times, the negative aspects outweigh the positives.

For one, texting can be a huge distraction. Numerous fatalities have come from car drivers not paying attention at the wheel- many were said to be texting at the time of the accident- and this even plagues train engineers, flight attendants, and other professionals in which a mere distraction such as texting can have deadly consequences.

Furthermore, despite some schools' regulations against cell phone usage, many students use their cell phones to cheat on tests. It is not hard for one to hide a cell phone under their desk or in a backpack and send a quick, silent text to a classmate or friend, begging them for an answer to a difficult question. It may not seem like a very significant problem, but it's just one more easy way kids are getting away with cheating these days.

Another negative impact from texting is that it degrades one's grammatical skills. When you're so accustomed to sending texts like this: "OMG ur rite its @ my hous come 4 it l8r" then becomes harder to switch back to the formal English language of: "Oh, you're right, it's at my house. Come for it later."

Students are especially affected by the texting epidemic. Developing these bad habits early on hurts their writing skills and can create problems at school or at work in the future. In fact, not only does texting hurt grammar skills, it also takes up more time than we realize. Sure, one or two texts may only take a few seconds to type out and send, but with some people sending as many as 7,000 texts per month, those seconds really add up.

Also, studies have shown that texting can be linked to poor grades in school, high anxiety levels, and sleep deprivation.

Ironically, people are beginning to lose their connection with others. With texting, face-to-face conversations are becoming obsolete and hanging out with friends can now easily be replaced with long conversations via text-messaging.

Thus, we can see that while texting may seem fun and easy at first glance, it can be very detrimental to people from all age groups over time. While getting rid of texting would be a bit of a stretch for most people, trimming down text limits or simply turning your phone off every once in a while can be very beneficial.