The tech generation

I'm going to take a moment to reflect on the so-called technology generation. Now I'm 23, and I was one of the first people in the eighth grade to get a cell phone. But when I got to high school, it was becoming more popular. However, texting was still not a trend until I was older. I didn't even learn how to text until my last year of high school or so, and I got my first QWERTY keyboard phone less than a year ago. That being said, I feel like I was fairly on track with other people my age. People about 5 years younger than me, fresh out of high school now, have probably had phones since they were in middle school, if not younger. Phones aren't really a novelty anymore like they were when I was in the eighth grade. For younger people today (referring to middle/high school ages up until about mid-20s) is assumed that you have a cell phone and that said phone receives texts, and 99 percent of the time, that assumption holds true.

I feel pretty tech savvy, but at the same time, I have resisted the urge to constantly have my cell phone with me. I do depend on it for quite a bit beyond communication (alarm, clock, games, etc), but I do my best not to text constantly. As I type this, I think my phone might be in my purse in the kitchen, but I'm not sure. I know I haven't checked it in 2 hours, and I'm good with that.

I went out with a group of people last night, most of whom were younger than me, some who were younger than my 20-year-old brother. And several of us had not met others in the group before last night, so there were some awkward moments when conversation died.....OR THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN IF EVERYONE STOPPED PULLING THEIR PHONES OUT AT EVERY LULL. I was amazed at how, as soon as people stopped talking for a moment, no fewer than 3 people would pull out their phones, and not only check it for messages, but actually respond right then and there. I'm of the class that believes if you're physically with people, pulling out your phone for any reason that's not directly related to those people (ie. calling an errant friend to meet up with you all somewhere) is frowned on. Clearly, I'm getting old.

The worst part was, since there WERE some conversation lulls (and music was loud and made it hard to converse anyway), instead of making more efforts to talk with the others, I too am embarrassed to admit I found myself pulling out my phone to text other friends not there. AND I COULD HAVE WAITED. It's not like telling a friend about the lame-o music was important. But when everyone else is texting, what do you do?? Stand around awkwardly while they finish? Yes. I suppose I should have, just for the principle.

My former fiance had this problem. We would be sitting at Pizza Hut, and rather than sit in silence or talk to each other, he would be texting other people. It got to the point where sometimes I would text him, as we're sitting across from each other, just to get him to interact with me instead of other people not present.

Neilsen conducted a year-long survey on cell phone use that I read about a few weeks ago that determined that teenagers in the U.S. (ages 13-17) sent an average of 1,742 text messages per month, which not surprisingly, is the highest of any age group. The next youngest age group (18-24) only sent an average of 790 texts, which is a significant drop, but as age goes up, the average number of texts goes down. Interesting, yes, but not surprising. I was interested to learn though, that the 18-24 group made the highest average number of calls, at 265. I guess we still value talking to people, somewhat.

Until last night, I wasn't sure though, how results like this would play into everyday life. So teenagers text a lot. Who cares? Some people say it's a good thing because they're keeping in touch more often, and quite a few of those texts are probably to mom and dad. Well, I don't know what it may translate to in the future, but I'll tell you right now, compared to my days of being 17-18 and hanging out with people I'd never met before, last night felt a lot lonelier.