There I was, having simple conversation with a friend when I hear a vrrrt…vrrrt…vrrrt. I thought to myself, “if she takes that phone out of her pocket…I swear…” and as her hand reached toward her pocket, I stopped talking and stared her down until she finished texting someone who is obviously more important than the person standing right in front of her.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” she replies. I am so utterly angered that I walk away from her but she doesn’t notice because I hear that wretched sound fade as I walk away, fuming.

Texting. It has taken over the world. Literally. Everyone has to talk to someone at every moment of every single day. An average teen sends 3,000 texts a month according to CNN, and I find that to be ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I do my fair share of texting, but when I’m talking to someone and I get a text, I ignore it until I’m finished with my conversation because I feel it’s disrespectful.  It angers me that teens these days are so reliant on their phones, and if it loses power, their whole world ends. 

It makes me wonder, what did our parents do when they were our age and wanted to talk to someone? I’m pretty sure that they called the person or went to their house and actually had a conversation that wasn’t like: “Hey!”

“Hey”

“Wht r u doin?”

“Nm. U?”

“Nm.” This leads me to believe that America has lost its conversational skills. No one knows how to talk face to face anymore.

Everyone is more comfortable now without their voices being projected out for the world to hear. It seems that we are all scared of talking to someone because there might be a hint of emotion in our voice. We feel that more can be better said behind a computer screen rather than in person, and frankly, that really annoys me. Talk to me. I don’t want to read something off a tiny LED screen from you.

This tsunami of lost communication can’t be stopped. And social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have made it worse. Facebook and texting have given teens and even adults the excuse to text or message their friends instead of calling them. At this point, there’s no turning back.

On Facebook, you can “add” whoever you want, but most people don’t even know half of their friends personally nor do they really care that their so called friend is bored on a Monday night sitting with their cat watching the Bachelor. Social networking is also extremely time consuming. I’m sure most people check their Facebook or Twitter account at least once a day, but then there are quizzes and horoscopes and don’t forget Farmville that take time away from work or someone more important than your computer.   

The whole point of the invention of the telephone was to talk to someone. Now with texting, a two minute phone call has been dragged out to 15 minutes, taking even more time away from actually doing something productive.

So people, please, I’m begging you. PUT. THE. PHONE. DOWN. and spend some quality time having a conversation with your parents that you may not see after you go to college or with your friends who you haven’t actually talked to in days. Get some fresh air. Go walk your dog. Play kick-ball or four-square with the neighbors. Turn back time for a little while. Oh, and leave your phone in the house. You know, just in case.