William 1

Christine William

Professor Malcolm Campbell

WRDS 1104

29 April 2022

The classroom was quiet except for the occasional sounds of a creaking chair, a pencil

being tapped, or a brief exchange between classmates. Each of us sat still with phone in hand,

glancing up frequently at the swung open door, waiting for the professor to arrive. Despite

sharing the profound bond of being college students eagerly waiting for class to start, the room

was haunted by the many conversations that never would happen. Yet we remained deeply

engaged in discussion, just not with each other. Our phones lit up with texts, connecting us to

people far away and detaching us from our surroundings.

I briefly looked up from my phone to wonder how different it would be if we chose to

start conversations with one another. Would it have been better than the silence? Or was the

silence justified because we were still talking with people through texting? I remembered the

judgements that are often made on the younger generation for being glued to their phones and

avoiding social interactions. I wonder if there is some truth to this argument. I disagree that we

avoid social interactions altogether, but I think we use texting to avoid awkward social

interactions. After all, isn’t that what was happening in the classroom? We talked briefly with

someone next to us about how tired we are, how much work we have, weekend plans, or the

weather, but our phones came out the moment there was an awkward silence.

But is texting in such a situation costing us our social skills or is it helping us cope better

and seek comfort in a conversation with someone we enjoy talking to? Texting undoubtedly has
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a significant impact on our everyday thoughts and actions; however, whether these impacts are

good or bad is heavily debated. Although there is research that proves that texting has positive

and negative impacts, there has not been a comparison between the two. If there are both positive

and negative effects, does one outweigh the other?