Free | 23/6
Posted: 6/3/2012
CHICAGO -- Anna Schiferl hadn't even rolled out of bed when she reached for her cell phone and typed a text to her mom, one recent Saturday. Mom was right downstairs in the kitchen. The text? Anna wanted cinnamon rolls for breakfast.Soon after, the 13-year-old could hear mom's voice echoing through the house.'Anna,' Joanna Schiferl called, 'if you want to talk to me, you come downstairs and see me!'Anna laughs about it now. 'I was kind of being lazy,' the teen from suburban Chicago concedes. 'I know that sounds horrible.'Well, maybe not horrible, but certainly increasingly typical.Statistics from the Pew Internet & American Life Project show that, these days, many people with cell phones prefer texting over a phone call. It's not always young people, though the data indicate that the younger you are, the more likely you are to prefer texting.And that's creating a communication divide, of sorts the talkers vs. the texters.Some would argue that it's no big deal. What difference should it make how we communicate, as long as we do so?But many experts say the most successful communicators will, of course, have the ability to do both, talk or text, and know the most appropriate times to use those skills. And they fear that more of us are losing our ability to have or at least are avoiding the traditional face-to-face conversations that are vital in the workplace and personal relationships.'It is an art that's becoming as valuable as good writing,' says Janet Sternberg, a professor of communication and media studies at Fordham University in New York who is also a linguist.In the most extreme cases, she's noticed that more students don't look her in the eye and have trouble with the basics of direct conversation habits that, she says, will not serve them well as they enter a world where many of their elders still expect an in-person conversation, or at the very least a phon