In their final issue of the school year, Fang – the school newspaper of LHHS – published an editorial admitting that students are talking less and texting more in the new age of technology. Rickey Newell, news reporter and new student to LH since he moved to Dallas from Houston in March, wrote “the truth is teens have gone from having face-to-face talks to texting. Our generation is labeled ‘the silent generation.’”
Newell quotes students and teachers weighing in on the subject, including school counselor Jinnetter Dixon who told students it is “good to have an old-fashioned conversation instead of texting.” An anonymous sophomore shared that texting lets students “get away from their shyness and express more than they would in person.” In America, 2.5 billion text messages and 247 billion emails are sent each day, according to Newell’s research. “It’s easier and it saves time.”
Newell admits, however, that with texting, something is lost in translation. “Think about how it took real guts for a guy back then (in our grandparents’ generation) to tell the love of his life that he didn’t want to be together any more while looking her in the eye instead of sending her a text message. What a drama.” Fang publications will begin again when the school year starts August 23, 2010.
