We all spend a lot of time on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and et cetera, and we also spend a vast amount of time on our cell phones. We now have cell phones that are capable of text and checking all of our various media of socialization. Day in and day out it seems that everyone is in a constant cycle of jumping in and out of different mediums to check their notifications, to retweet a celebrity, or text back a friend.

Experts have various opinions for and against the use of social media and texting. Some would say that it ruins our conversation skills; others say it ruins our writing skills. Yet, these outlets for communication have positive effects, too. We can talk to friends who live long distances away from us. It’s a quick, cheap and effective means of staying in touch and up to date. 

However, there’s a few lingering questions about whether or not we’re becoming too attached to Facebook and texting. Does too much texting affect our abilities to hold a steady and intelligent conversation? Are our relationships dwindling as a result of technology that helps us maintain relationships? These are interesting and pressing questions to be answered.

Using social media to communicate definitely has some advantages over real-life interaction. That being said, we don’t all need to shut ourselves up in our rooms and never see our friends again. Facebook and texting both offer the user a quick and effective way of communicating. 

You can find out how your family is doing, what the plans are for the weekend or what the homework is for your next class. It doesn’t even have to be a quick one-two.

We’ve probably all had those long, deep conversations and felt more comfortable opening up to someone on Facebook or through texting. To be honest, sometimes it’s just hard to talk to someone and these media can be an excellent way to find new things to talk about. 

The best part about using chat and texting to talk with friends and family is the wide range of people you can actually get into touch with. It’s fantastic for students who live far from home, be it three hours or out of the country, they can call or text their loved ones.

To make this a fair fight, it’s necessary to look at the negative aspects of using social media sites and texting to socialize. 

A fair number of people who use chat and texting often don’t exactly write in an essay format. We use a lot of abbreviations to help minimize the amount of time we spend messaging each other. I’ve heard in classes that teachers will occasionally receive a paper where that kind of texting lingo has seeped through into someone’s academic work.

There’s also this slight problem with people becoming recluses. That’s the extreme end of the spectrum, but it is a lot easier to sit at home on the computer or with a cell phone and let your fingers do all the work. But we also need to be able to get out of the house and see our friends and family. Go out to dinner, go to the park and frolf, do something. These relationships that are dependent on back-and-forth messaging don’t seem like real relationships because they lack an authentic social experience.

Here’s a hypothetical situation: imagine an instance where you and your friends go out to grab some pizza and wings. Now you’re sitting at the table and everyone has their phone our tweeting, Facebooking and texting. Is this really a social get-together? You can all accomplish the same thing sitting at home and ordering take-out. Think about that: a world where we’re not sharing emotions with each other. It’s just an endless stream of, “What’s up?” and “Nothing much.” The closest thing we’d experience to true emotional reciprocation is an emoticon. There’s really no way to decipher mood through messaging one another, unless we come up with some brilliant system of emotion markers.

It seems silly to have an opinion on paper instead of sharing it with other people. So maybe next time we go out to spend time with friends and family, make it mandatory that there be no phones at the table. 

Have a real conversation about current events, music, art, sports, really anything. Share your ideas and yourself with another friend and make long-lasting bonds with human beings. If you’ve ever tried to have a conversation with a machine, it’s only fun for a while.

Kevin Doerzman is a sophomore in psychology from Burlington, Iowa.