I’m not gonna lie, I have a love/hate relationship with texting. I love texting because I can take care of an issue quickly, contact my team, students, friends, family members and anyone else in an instant.
Texting rocks. It really does. It makes things simple, easy and instant.
Why do I hate texting? Because texting is invalidating and insulting.
The classroom feels different than it did a few years ago. Until recently, professors didn’t have to deal with this “problem.”
What’s up with a whole generation that doesn’t understand plain, good manners?
My texting policy in class is simple – please don’t. Not because I don’t like to text, I do. But texting in my class, at my dinner table or during my conversation with you, means you are ignoring me. And that is pure rudeness.
In the classroom, it means you are choosing not to pay attention to the discussion, and pay attention to something else instead.
Research is very clear that attention must be paid to incoming stimuli so the information can be processed, sorted and stored for later retrieval. Students involved in text conversations during class aren’t going to have the available processing space to pay attention to me and the competing text message.
So, not only are the texters incapable of processing the information in class, but they also are probably unknowingly invalidating others in their lives, too.
Today it’s a professor, but next it’s a friend, coach, parent, significant other or any multitude of individuals attempting to engage them.
My love/hate relationship with texting continues beyond the classroom – to my team, my family, my friends and co-workers.
My grown children come home for a family gathering and I admonish them about texting at the table, a team rule that mandates no texting during formal team dinners is necessary, my friend spends all night texting someone while a guest in my home – what has happened to common courtesy?
Texting in front of anyone is sending the message that you are bored and uninterested and that the person speaking to you is unimportant and insignificant.
In class, texting shows your professor that you place little value on the preparation, time and effort he/she has put into preparing a challenging, interesting, engaging class discussion or lecture – the ultimate invalidation.
I want to be a good teacher, a good coach, an engaged parent and a trusted friend, but when someone pulls out a cell phone and begins to text another individual on my time, it is curiously disturbing.
I laugh it off sometimes, and sometimes I get angry. Sometimes I deduct points, but truthfully, it just plain hurts my feelings.