Last night I sent a text: “Food?”
There are those of us who can recall life without text(ing). It was rough back then. You had to pick up a phone, remember a number, physically dial that number and speak to an actual person! You had to greet them, offer options, and discuss to a goal.
All that conversation now has been reduced to a seamless act of thinking of a friend, choosing to text message them vs. calling and then sending a single word! The entire process takes less than 10 seconds vs. what could be an hour-long call before we even get to the food part.
Grammar, punctuation, and capitalization rules are now rendered optional; discussion happens in a free-flowing exchange of one-word answers. “Now? 7pm? Tomorrow?” Thanks to text, conversation and discussion have achieved their most distilled form.
And yet if that wasn’t enough, now text is taking over a world where email once reigned supreme.
I get articles to review, invitations, invoices, and access to the endless banter of group chats where friends & family vie for the role of the wittiest, and the fastest typist wins! Text has effectively replaced strategic thinking, our list of things to do, and group conversations.
Now, for someone like me, who enjoys writing, I welcome the ability to type rather than talk. I love choosing the right word, and the drama of punctuation! I enjoy the arrogance of appropriate capitalization. I love being in my head with no one there to influence my thoughts.
HOWEVER,… now I’m shouting to get your attention since you’re not here. Where text provides the basics of human interaction… it has its limitations. In its efficiency is lost the human touch. Texting occurs in a vacuum… because no one else is there to influence my thoughts.
Of course, we can read articles that may convince us one way or another. But we have to choose to read them in the first place whereas conversation can awaken the mind to go beyond (what we already know). It is a safe zone that helps to stretch our minds. Imagine listening to a political pundit “from the other side,” vs. a late-night discussion with a friend. Which would you prefer to broaden your perspective?
Conversation expands, explores, invites. It convinces, it cajoles. Conversation opens the channels to an exploration of an idea, which is created during the conversation. It provides the benefit of the thoughts of the many over the single limited thinking of the one. It is unplanned co-creation, every time!
These days, we can operate our entire world through the written word of text, email, and the walls of (anti)social media. But we miss out on the unplanned, unabridged, uncensored, and unedited thoughts. We lose the accidental and unintended synergies that conversations can facilitate. We miss opportunities that we never considered.
Start somewhere with someone and see where the spoken word can take you! Converse. Talk. Shoot the breeze. Discuss. Debate. Explore. Invite yourself to a party of more than just one!
“The great charm of conversation consists less in the display of one’s own wit and intelligence than in the power to draw forth the resources of others.”
Jean de la Bruyere
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