Debate Nirvana

Texting has become a large part of our lives mainly because of how efficient it is to communicate with it. Compared to email, texting is 60 times faster best way to communicate in the modern world. Text messages are read in an average of 90 seconds, and responded to directly 45% of the time, which means if you have need someone fast, texting is clearly the way to go. Compared to email, email takes an average of 90 MINUTES to read, and is only responded to 6% of the time after being read. This obviously means that texting is a faster and more efficient way to send messages. The research group Mobile Marketing Watch, says text messages have  a 98% open rate, while email lags far behind at 20%.  Additionally, 90% of all text messages are read within 3 minutes of being sent, according to Connect Mogul, a telecommunications research firm.  It takes the average person 90 minutes to respond to email, but only 90 seconds to respond to a text message. And according to Pew Research, texting is the most widely-used and frequently used app on a smartphone, with 97% of Americans using it at least once a day.  And according to the 2015 International Smartphone Mobility Report by mobile data tracking firm Infomate, U.S. smartphone users are sending and receiving five times as many texts compared with the number of phone calls each day. In total, Americans spend about 26 minutes a day texting. That compares to spending about six minutes a day on voice calls. Having fast communication is important today because it is saving people’s lives. For instance, Nancy Lublin, founder of Crisis Text Line,  says that texting is actually the best way to communicate with kids in crisis because it’s immediate.  A telephone hotline requires finding a private place to make a call, but even the most personal confessions can be texted in the heat of a crisis. In just two years, the Crisis Text Line has exchanged more than 6 million texts between people in crisis and counselors. And Lublin's team has turned that anonymous stream of text data into what she calls a "live, real-time heat map of crises in America." Among the discoveries the map reveals: 30 percent of texts are about suicide and depression, with Sunday being the day people most often write in about killing themselves. Texts requesting help with eating disorders peak on Sunday and Monday. And two thirds of all crises happen at night, between 8:00 P.M. and 4:00 A.M.  These are all facts that we wouldn’t know without the data that comes from texts.  So far, the Crisis Text Hotline counselors have intervened in nearly 1,000 suicide attempts, saving the lives of people in acute distress.

The average person thinks that teens using texting may increase the use of abbreviations such as OMG or LOL in real life, however many studies show that texting helps with literacy and spelling in the classroom. Texting helps society in the way of educating America. Texting will help the American people therefore texting does more good than harm. In fact, teachers such as Cindi Rigsbee of Orange County, N.C have asked students to translate classic literacy to “texting language” to show language comprehension and surprisingly most students had a fun, easy time doing it. Not only that but, a new study from California State University researchers has found that texting can improve teens’ writing in informal essays and many other writing assignments. Scholastic says “A British study published in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning found a positive correlation between texting and literacy, concluding that texting was “actually driving the development of phonological awareness and reading skill in children.” In other words, contrary to what you might think when faced with “creative” usages such as ur for your, 2 for to, and w8 for wait, kids who text may be stronger readers and writers than those who don’t. Furthermore, texting has no negative effect on school work or grades, according to Scholastic. Also according to scholastic, students know when not to text. At the City University in London, grad students found that students avoid “textism” is their work. Not only that, but a study by Stanford University showed that texting actually increased the size of papers.

Many people say texting does not promote communication though in the big picture texting it can solve communication between people in different cities, states, or countries. The difference between writing a letter and writing a text is catastrophic. Not only does a text get to a person faster than mail a text message only needs to be clicked to send while you have to bring a piece of mail to a mailbox which takes even more time. For email on the other hand it is also slow according to pcworld.com you do not get notified of an email if it has been received which slows down the process of communication. Now that we have established that texting is the fastest source of long distant communication I can show you judge why that is important. If someone is feeling sad or down or even just wanting to talk to a friend that is completely possible with text. Texting is like writing a letter but the person receives it in seconds. So you can have a conversation about your life in seconds from thousands of miles away.

Drivers who are texting are distracted and take their eyes off of the road.  This leads to accidents and fatalities.  Texting while driving is a very common habit. At any given time of the day, around 660,000 Americans are trying to use their phones while driving. According to the National Safety Council, the usage of cellphones while driving leads to 1.6 million car crashes per year, which is 1 out of every 4 car accidents in the United States. That means texting is six times more likely to cause an accident than drunk driving. Texting while driving makes being in a car crash 23 times more likely. There are a lot of real life examples of how people’s lives have been ruined because they texted while driving. Here is the story from a mother whose daughter was in a crash “My daughter Liz’s car accident from texting while driving has changed our lives forever. If you get a text, don’t look at it while you’re driving. It’s not worth it,” Because of a texting while driving accident, Liz was left hard of hearing, blind in one eye, a diminished sense of smell, and unable to fall asleep without medication. However, she said the hardest part of the accident was being left friendless. Having poor health directly caused by texting is not worth it. Thousands of people are dying because a person decided to text, “Lol” or another unimportant comment.

As mentioned before, texting occupies the lives of the majority of  teenagers. When texting, you are often staying in the same position for an extended period of time. The position is bad for your spine and fingers.  According to the Best Health Magazine in Canada, texting hurts your posture. Dr. Ayla Azad, Vice President of the Ontario Chiropractic Association and a chiropractor herself, stated, “Your head is a heavy structure. When you carry its weight forward, you’re putting a lot of pressure on the base of the neck, and top of the shoulders.” In 2014, Surgical Technology International confirmed these findings adding that when you are staring at your phone, your spine is subject to up to 60 pounds. Judge, you may be wondering why having poor posture has such a negative impact on people, and the reason is that poor posture leads to neck pain, shoulder tightness, upper back pain, headaches, numbness, and tingling down your arms and hands. If you send lots of texts every day, you are at risk of repetitive strain injuries on your thumbs, wrists, elbows, and neck. A 2008 study by Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, and Wayne State University in the U.S. found that phone use before bed interfered with a good night’s sleep. Their research suggested that the phone’s radiation caused insomnia, and made it more difficult for study participants to enter the first stages of deep sleep. According to the American Optometric Association (AOA), extended use of a smartphone can cause eye discomfort such as blurred vision, headaches, eyestrain, dry eyes, and neck and shoulder pain.

Texting is unnecessary, because email and phone do the same things but in better ways.

One of the main reasons people would choose texting over email is that it can reach the other person fast, but a phone call will reach them as fast, if not faster, and you will be able to have an immediate conversation. Another reason phone would be preferred over texting is that when you hear them talk, you can sense their emotion, detect sarcasm, and connect with them better. Email also has advantages over texting. With email, you can respond to it as soon as you get it, or wait a while, whereas with texting you feel pressured to answer it immediately. 

Texting can easily distract us. They can be a particular problem in schools where they discourage us and those around us from working. Texting while doing a piece of work will reduce your concentration making it more likely you will make mistakes. Texting, like video games, are also a distraction from doing other things. We don’t just use texting for communication but also for games. Most young people spend well over an hour texting each day. As a result there is much less time for other activities.