What would we do without cell …

What would we do without cell phones? Have you ever left your phone at home and noticed just how much you needed it throughout the day? Advancements in technology have grown exponentially in the past ten years, from Blackberrys and Nokias to iPhones that can do pretty much anything you could imagine. The first cell phone was invented in 1973, and it took twenty-two years to invent text messaging. Nowadays, texting is one of the most popular means of communication, on par with phone calls. Although text messages and phone calls can achieve the same function of communication, both have their advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of texting are XYZ but the downsides are ABC. Calling has the advantages of DEF, but it could also be problematic because of GHI.

Texting can be fast, simple, and get a reply faster, recorded for later use, can be used as a notepad, and keeps conversations private.

Calling makes conversations and interactions feel more personal and professional, safer to use while in a car, and more realistic and emotional. There are several main advantages of texting over calling. The first advantage over calling is that when texting someone, you will get an immediate response a search was done by____ and they found that “90 percent of text messages get read within 3 minutes of delivery”, while when you call someone, the other person might not be able to answer due to inconvenience, or more often they will avoid answering on purpose. The second main advantage of texting over calling, is that all your texts are recorded and are easy to find while you would have to write down what the phone call is about and risk losing what you have written down. There are services that can record the call, it may be hard to find a certain part of the phone call. Another advantage of texting, is that if you are in a situation where you don’t have access to a pen or paper, you could simple text yourself the information so you could access the information at a later time.

The third reason that texting is better than calling is when you are in a situation when having a phone conversation is not possible, or appropriate like on the bus or train. Although texting has its advantages, there are several disadvantages. The first disadvantage is that that language of texting has reached a point to when almost everything is abbreviated. Messages are becoming so condenses that the full meaning of the message isn’t clear to the receiver. The second disadvantage of texting is the lack of tone and emotion that comes with it. An example of this would be when a friend of mine asked if I could hang out with him, I responded saying that I couldn’t and that I was busy. He thought that I said I couldn’t and I was busy in a angry tone when I meant it in a calm tone.

The last disadvantage of texting is that it isn’t in real time like calling someone or talking in real life. When texting, it might take hours for someone to reply while when calling you will get a response immediately. Although texting might have its perks, calling does have some advantages over texting. The first advantage being, it is more professional and personal. I would never make a business deal, or a job interview over text. The second advantage of calling is that conversation is more full. With texting, messages are condensed and can cause misunderstanding.

while with calling, sentences are not condensed and can better explain what the person is saying. The third advantage of calling is the ability to add emotion to your speech. UCLA professor Albert Mehrabian found that 58 percent of communication is through body language, 35 percent through vocal tone, pitch, and emphasis, and a mere 7 percent through content of the message. You can’t infer what the person on the other side of the phone is saying with only the 7 percent you are receiving. You can’t take an important test with only 7 percent of your brain power. Despite the fact that there are many advantages of calling, there are also many disadvantages. The first disadvantage is that there are certain situations where it is inappropriate to call someone such as when they are in the middle of a meeting or in class.

The second disadvantage is that when you want to communicate a simple message across but you don’t have time to have a long conversation it’s hard to do that. The third disadvantage is that people may intentionally not answer the phone call which will make it hard to have a conversation.