by Nina Medeiros

Created on: April 05, 2009   Last Updated: April 08, 2009

It is often assumed that every new vehicle for communication or technology, is just an extension of an older one. Take Neil Postman's example in his fantastic book "Amusing Ourselves to Death," that the automobile is thought of as an extension of a fast horse, or an electric light as an extension of a powerful candle. In these terms it is easy to think of text messaging as just an extension of communication, but the truth is that texting is a mode of communication unto itself.

Texting does not extend communication. It redefines it. Common combinations like LOL or ILY have gained status as complete thoughts without need of further elaboration. Over time, this changes the face of how we talk and engage with one another. Have you ever thought about how new words enter the English language? Take for example the verb, google.

"Google it," you might say to a friend, and Websters would agree. To 'google' something is now a common, understood and more importantly, accepted term of communication. In much the same way, texting is creating it's own language. The question is, what will the impacts be?

While as a society we are certainly more well-connected these days, we are less intimate. Emails, texts, instant messaging, social media sites - these have all given us multiple opportunities each day to connect, but since we are always checking our email, our facebook page, texting on our Blackberry or IM'ing our friends, we are less present and available for the relationships happening "in the moment." Additionally, it is quite normal to go days or even weeks without "speaking" to a live person, even when they are very important to us. Admittedly, this is disturbing, yet not a reason to say that texting is 'ruining' communication.

To begin with, if we were to blame texting, we would have to be far more inclusive of all the other technologies that are threatening old methods of communicating. Also, we would have to show a great deal of evidence to counteract the fact that texting actually enables many forms of communication that weren't previously available. Naturally, there are drawbacks. This is true of any new technology. The invention of the telegraph so long ago connected people in Texas to people in Maine, but that didn't necessarily mean that the two of them had anything meaningful to say to each other. Access of modern Americans to around-the-clock news means that we know more information about more things, but how does that change us? What exactly do we do with all this knowledge?

Technology is imperfect, but there is no stopping an idea whose time has come. In the blink of an eye, texting will be an old technology, wait and see. Many famous philosophical works report that Socrates, who believed that all real learning occurred only through discourse (conversation) was adamantly opposed to "writing" as a tool for education. Of course we only know that, because Aristotle (his student) wrote it down!

Texting is not ruining communication, but it is creating vast changes in the way we relate to one another and what information we are able to share. As any form of technology, it should be examined and understood with great respect for the power it has over culture.

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