Generation 'Text'

I remember a time when people articulated when they spoke. A time when people would meet in person to discuss their love life, and “ily” were simply the last three letters of “happily” and had nothing to do with the cherished words “I love you.” Contrary to the belief of our tech-obsessed generation, that time was not that long ago. I realized those days were but a distant memory when I visited my sister over summer.
It was a beautiful, warm day and New York was bustling with life and energy. Hipsters strutted down the street with their plaid shirts and much too tight pants, and artists surrounded the busy park while crazy old men held signs in their air saying that Jesus would be ashamed of us. Meanwhile, my sister and I were having lunch at a cute little café right around her perfect Manhattan loft. The day just couldn’t get any better. Except for the fact that she hadn’t uttered one word to me in about two hours. Instead, she sat with her eyes glued to her phone giving the occasional nod and “mhmm, yeah.” It occurred to me then that I had lost her to the only drug our world actually encouraged, the dreaded crackberry.
What has happened to the simple moments of real human contact? How bad will it get if we haven’t even scratched the surface of modern technology? The texting, the web surfing, the facebooking, the googling, and my personal favorite, the cat picture stalking. I read a CNN article online today that said that the average man keeps their phone within arms reach for 17 hours a day. 17 hours a day! That means the only times they might not have access to their phones are when they sleep, and perhaps when they take the occasional bathroom break. But for the rest of the day, we are proven utterly useless without our precious multi-media gadgets.
Today, we can watch television on our phones, scan plane tickets on our phones, we can even link our phones to our credit cards and use them to shop at stores. Think about it, our phones actually have more power than we do! On top of the excessive texting, tweeting, and picture taking, we refuse to speak in full-length, grammatically correct sentences. I guarantee that if you are younger than 25 you will probably understand most, if not all of this horrid conversation:

Sup?
Nm dood, wat u doin tonight
Maybe go 2 dis party, lowkey though.
Where at?
Idk, think the valley
Fml, super far.
Seriously. Smh

Not only have we become so accustomed to a screen instead of a physical person, but we have butchered one of the only things that set us apart from apes. A complex, and at times extremely useful, language. So I plead with you, for the sake of all that is good in humanity, put down your phone, and visit your mother or father for a good ol’ fashioned human conversation.