Walk through any airport these days and you can't help but notice an interesting trend. Everyone waiting for a flight seems to be deeply focused on a tiny screen as they tap away feverishly with their thumbs. Text messaging and mobile e-mail have clearly made it to the masses.
When I first started traveling more than 20 years ago, cell phones were bricks, owned by elite businessmen. Few would consider taking their phone with them on a flight. Most cell phones were installed in cars anyway. In those days, as soon as a flight landed, the self-important would run to the nearest payphone to check in with their assistant. Eventually, these assistants were replaced by voicemail, but communication was still limited to executives and neurotic parents checking in with the babysitters whom they entrusted with the lives of their precious children.
In the mid-1990s I started traveling for business on a regular basis. In those days cell phones were becoming more common, but they only did one thing, make phone calls. The waiting areas in airport terminals nationwide started filling with these status symbols. However, most people saved them for emergencies and rarely wasted money on the exorbitant roaming fees.
By the late 1990s, stiff competition and nationwide roaming plans helped cell phones expand to the masses. Teenagers started talking endlessly on ever shrinking devices. Meanwhile, a new symbol of the all-too-important emerged, the Blackberry. The obsessive professional that once hunted all corners of the airport for an available payphone could attempt to survive another day in the never ending battle to keep up with the overwhelming flood of e-mail.
A similar evolution occurred in the halls of high schools and college campuses everywhere. American teens and young adults became obsessed with text messaging, a mere half decade after a similar trend with their peers in Europe. With a dexterity not possible among older adults, the younger generation triple tapped with their BFFs and LOL’d until they needed to be BRB. OMG it was GR8.
Today, our society has become completely obsessed with the need for constant communication. Text messaging and mobile e-mail have become so pervasive that even soccer moms and empty-nesters can be spotted tapping away on their phones. Yet somehow it seems like people have forgotten how to speak. Walking through the airport you can't miss it as entire groups sit together with their heads cocked at a 45° angle, eyes fixed on the screen, and thumbs flailing away.
So the next time you're waiting for a flight, sit down next to a crazy texter, ask their number, pull out your cell phone, and text away. Maybe you’ll join the texting masses. But please try not to forget how to speak.
