2007 English Essay Contest
Gold Prize-winning Essay (High School Division)

How to See Both Sides:
Text Messaging Among Teenagers, Good or Evil?

Chae Ree (Sungduk High School)

    Have you ever seen people sending text messages in the movie theater? Have you ever seen students sending text messages in the streets or in public transportation? Or have you ever met teenagers who prefer to just send text messages instead of sharing verbal communication? What do you think about such phenomena? I have had such experiences that I have mentioned above. Some students would send text messages during the movie, so I could not concentrate on watching the movie. Such situations are very common in our daily lives. There are so many people, especially teenagers, who own expensive cell phones nowadays. And the so-called “Thumb Generation” (Um-Ji Jook in Korean) is everywhere. And it is causing a lot of problems in our society.
    There was a survey done recently about teenagers between the ages of 14 to 19 on their cell phone use. It was done by the Information and Technology Institute of Korea and it says that 4 out of 10 students in Korean high schools and middle schools are sending text messages to their friends behind their teachers’ back or should I say, under their desks. The average number of text messages students send a month is over 1000. Also, 30% of students said that they feel extremely nervous without their cell phones. And they found that the main usage of cell phones for a teenager is to send text messages. This proves that cell phone addiction is directly related to text message addiction, rather than making phone calls among students. The main reason for teenagers to send text messages to others is that they are “just bored” (42.2%). This is quite simple, yet a very interesting fact. 
    To tell you the truth, I do not own a cell phone myself. Not because my mother prohibits modern technology, but because I do not want it. I have sent text messages through my friends’ mobile phone. It was very fun the first time, but then I soon realized, the more I send text messages, the more I became addicted to cell phones and the fun of text messaging. So, I gave up the thought of getting a cell phone. But not having cell phone sometimes make me feel like I am a loner. When I go to school in the morning, my friends always talk about things that they talked about with text messages the day before. Of course I do not have any clue of what they talked about with text messages, and eventually having no cell phone makes me feel left out of the group. On the other hand, having cell phones and being able to text message other friends wherever and whenever you want to gives teenagers the feeling that they are sharing the same emotion with their peers all the time. That is the reason why many teenagers, like my friends, consider a cell phone as an essential gadget to carry.
    For example, experts say text message addiction may distract people’s concentration, cause depression, insomnia, nervousness and even difficulty to adjust to reality. And that is why people, in particular, teenagers should be careful when they choose to have cell phones from the beginning.
    Once I was hanging out with some of my friends. They were preoccupied with their cell phones and sending text messages and were not concentrating on the conversation going on with their present friends. Everybody was there with me in a cute little café but their minds were floating in the air while they were text messaging to different friends with their cell phones. I felt pretty lonely in the middle of the crowd. Even though cell phones enable people to communicate easily, they make people without them feel like lonely islands spread out in the vast ocean.
    Teenagers are well known for their lack of self-control. Therefore, there should be more information out there to help them and to warn them when they decide to get their own cell phones. There should be a system where parents or teenagers themselves can think carefully about their choices. In school, teachers must educate students actively about what kinds of serious problems cell phone addiction and text message addiction can cause. They should teach students how to use cell phones properly and how to control one self.
    Phone companies are responsible for this matter as well. First, they should change their minds of trying to squeeze out as much money as possible from their younger customers. They must not target teenagers, as the prey of their hunt for making profits. Instead, they should think of their own children and the future generations who will lead this country in up coming era. They should carefully design their payment system and drop the unlimited text message payment program which harms the young minds by intoxicating them with text message addiction.
    Not only that, parents should always care about whether their children are addicted to the text messaging or not. They should establish rules of using cell phones and draw the bottom line on how much text messages can be sent. But first, parents should try to talk with their children and solve the problem. Communication is the key to solve this problem. It is a human nature to communicate with each other. But it is the quality of communication that matters, not the quantity.
    In ancient history, there is a Greek myth of Prometheus finding fire. Fire helped mankind protect themselves from wild animals and relieved them from the coldness. But because of humans using fire carelessly, it turned into a weapon against us and put us into danger of life threatening destruction. This is very much similar to cell phones and the text message addiction. Cell phones give us efficiency to communicate with others beyond the obstacles of time and space. Not only that, we can do many things that are beneficial with it such as listening to music and taking pictures. But, it may turn its back to us and become a harmful device. Therefore we should be more careful not to fall into the text message addiction and use cell phones properly. 
 

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