Communication For A Fast Paced World

Adam Roll
DTC 375
Dr. Jason Farman
Word Count: 942

Communication For A Fast Paced World

On a daily basis, millions of people engage in a form of communication. Cell phones are a simple way to stay in contact with friends and loved ones. It has been a big benefactor for business purposes as well. Within the emergence of the cell phone, it wasn’t long before text messaging rapidly spread and become the fad in communication. In the fast paced world we live in today, text messaging is emerged as a new way of communication that is utilized on a daily basis due to its simplistic, strait to the point form. Here I will discuss the effects it has on communication, how it pays ‘homage’ to older media as Marshal Mcluhan would say, and how it is utilized by myself.

Text messaging has emerged as a new form of communication due to the fast paced world we live in today and has changed the way we communicate. We live in a world where we want instant results now, cutting out all the nonsense, pre-chatter and getting strait to the point. Text messaging does just that. Picture this, you want to wish your friend Happy Birthday but you are busy, perhaps in a meeting, you don’t have time to call your friend and chat for 5 minutes, so you text him Happy Birthday. It takes seconds to do. Text messaging is faster, it is more discrete and for some, an easier platform to communicate with, rather than a cell phone. Fore example, lets look at the last election, “More than 2.9 million text messages were said to have been sent out on that particular occasion. The Obama campaign has never really released the size of its mobile database, but the Biden announcement goes down in history as the largest mobile marketing push by text, at least to date.” (Mickey Alam Khan, Parra 11) As you can see text messaging was taken advantage of in the last elections and may have contributed to President Obama’s success.

Although text messaging is a new form of communication that is used on a daily basis it is not always the most appropriate platform to communicate with. For example, you do not want to use text messaging in cases such as: fights between two people or while operating a moving vehicle. The purpose for this is it is dry and emotionless, therefore sometimes difficult for the recipient to interpret mood or tone of the conversation. You may say something that can be taken wrong and ruin your relationship. In the case of operating a moving vehicle, it can prove to be deadly.

Text messaging, as McLuhan would say, pays ‘homage’ to older media. Text messaging formed a new name for itself as a form of communication. It is true, where we’re at today in this technology advanced world, is due to all the technological advancements that have came before it. Communication started at one point in time as hand written letters, then to the telegraph, and eventually transformed into the advancement we have today. Cell phones are a wireless form of communication that we can take with us on the go. Text messaging is an advancement that grew off of the cell phone which is needed for our world we live in today. As Bolt and Grusin states, “Media function as objects within the world--within systems of linguistic, cultural, social, and economic exchange. Media are hybrids in Latour’s sense and are therefore real for the cultures that create and use them.” (Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, pg. 58) This goes the same for text messaging, it only exists because we as a society have a need for it.

I use text messaging on a daily basis for several purposes. For me, in certain circumstances, it is cheaper and less time consuming to send a text message to my friends and loved ones than making a phone call. It’s not that I am trying to avoid engaging in a conversation with them, its just that I am a very busy individual and it’s sometimes more convenient to send a text. At other times, I utilize the technology of text messaging because I am out of minutes and its simply cheaper than going over in minutes. One of the greatest things about text messaging in my opinion is that it can be done more discretely without interrupting anyone around you. Another example of the use of text messaging in my life would be for work. The prior position I held was a Managment position. It was not uncommon for me to receive text messages from employees and other superiors. Sometimes they were simple questions, and other times they were informative. On occasion, I would even be called into work through a text message. For me, text messaging has become an necessity, I use it on a daily basis in order to keep in contact with friends, family and even work, with little interruption or time consumption in my busiest moments.

Text messaging is great technology that has advanced due to specific cultural needs. Text messaging is a simple way to stay in contact with friends and loved ones when time is of the essence. It is best said by McLuhann when he states, “media as extensions of our senses institute new ratios, not only among our private senses, but among themselves when they interact among themselves.” (Marshal McLuhan, pg 152) It goes the same for text messaging, the cell phone becomes one with our senses. As you know, there are many ways of staying in contact with the world, some are more personal than text messaging, but it gets the job done.





Bibliography



Remediation, Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, “Understanding New Media” http://www.jasonfarman.com/dtc375_sp09/Remediation2.pdf, 2000,

Mickey Alam Khan, Mobile Marketer, A victory for Obama, a victory for mobile, Novmber 5, 2008, Parra, 11. http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/editorials/2049.html

Essential, Marshal McLuhan, edited by Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone, 1995, http://www.jasonfarman.com/dtc375_sp09/McLuhan1.pdf