2-8-2010: Taking a (Text) Break

Did you know that 8-18 year olds spend, on average, 7.5 hours daily engaged in media? That’s roughly 52 hours a week of “screen time”--more than the average work week!

While all forms of media have an impact on our daily lives, today’s chapel focused specifically on cell phones and texting. Cell phones can be a great asset in case of an emergency and provide the ability to access information almost instantaneously. But texting is a form of communication that should be used wisely and not excessively.

Texting gives us the ability to avoid uncomfortable situations caused by face to face confrontation. But at the same time it can be a source of great confusion since texts are only words and lack the “non-verbal” signals that are present in a face-to-face conversation or even in a phone conversation. If a text is misunderstood, it cannot be corrected in “real time” as in a verbal conversation; it might take 10 texts in order to clear up the misunderstanding.

Texting also affects our listening ability. For example, if you try to carry on a face to face conversation with someone while texting to someone else, it can become confusing (and maybe even hurtful) to all parties. Communicating only by texts can also affect how many true friendships we have in which we can share deep conversations and feelings.

Challenge yourself to set aside some “text-free” time during your week, especially as we enter the season of Lent.