Nate's Rather Verbal Blogging Debut

Well hello world.....is anybody out there? Is anybody going to read this? Am I just wasting time? Testing…..testing…..1….2….3……

My guess is that I am writing all these words to me, myself, and I. I have no idea how this blogging stuff works, and I am in desperate need of a class in Blogging 101. I know of a few people who blog all the time, and to that I say "more power to ya." Don't get me wrong, I think blogs are cool. You can learn a lot about a person through their blogs, and anybody who knows me well will quickly acknowledge that I am a people person.


Yes its true, people fascinate me......learning about a persons life, learning about what makes them tick, learning about things they have experienced, learning about their struggles in life, learning about their families, learning about their relationship with God, learning about what frustrates them....the list could go on and on. I LOVE PEOPLE! Everyone has a story to tell no matter if they are the President of the United States, a police officer who hands out traffic tickets, a cussin' sailor, or a homeless person in the streets.

Okay, so back to the blogging subject. I have verbally said that I do not blog. I mean, who wants to sit in front of a computer and write hundreds upon hundreds of words when college credit is not involved on the other end? Unfortunately I have verbally said many things, only to eventually counter my own words at some point.

Allow me to go on a tangent for a few paragraphs. It is related, but I have an example of when I countered something I was very verbal about. When I was in highschool, I was very verbal about not getting a
MySpace page. Here are a few things I said:

"MySpace is such a waste of time"

"Here is a novel idea....TALK TO SOMEONE FACE-TO-FACE"

"I don't see the point"

"Wow...you have been on the computer for the last 3 hours....what are you doing? OH, let me guess.... MYSPACE." {rolls eyes}

My adamant case against social networking in highschool was probably a good thing....I probably even got
slightly better grades as a result.

The day came in college when I found myself hanging out with a close friend of mine in the library who happened to be spending oodles of time on MySpace. It was then and there that I decided it was time to figure this stuff out once and for all. So I gathered up the courage to inquire about the 'time thief phenomenon' known as MySpace. It didn't take long for me to register on MySpace just to see what it was all about. I had no plans to actually do anything with it....just to surf around and to be curious (baby steps for disaster....yeah, I know).

Turns out, DOZENS…if not SCORES of friends and family were already hooked. I saw fancy pages, dazzling pictures, catchy status messages, and best of all....LOTS OF FRIENDS! As fate would have it, I eventually bit the hook and got reeled in. I created photo albums, and uploaded pictures. I changed the look of my page monthly to reflect the time of the year. I sent out frequent comments to those I had just talked to an hour earlier just because I could. I accepted friend requests from people all across the nation (DISCLAIMER - I do not accept requests from people I don't know). I created a music playlist so people could be musically entertained when visiting my page.

MySpace became the headquarters for gossip. If I ever had a question about the love life of one of my friends, I found myself going straight to the source. No, I’m not talking about confronting the issue face-to-face…I’m talking about sitting down in front of the safety of my computer screen and logging into MySpace for relationship status information.

I will admit my first year in college could have resulted in slightly better grades had I not spent so much time doing worthless things on the computer. We live and learn though, and while I am still the proud owner of a MySpace page, my ‘online now’ icon is not flashing for even a SLIVER of the time now as it used to. Facebook is an entirely different story however.

Speaking of Facebook, remember how I just said that I do not blog because of the time and effort required to write all those words? Well for me, the Facebook status message is my substitute for blogging. The biggest reason for this is because I have a 450-character limit when updating my status, so the total time it takes for me to write out what is happening in my life is about 30 seconds. Become a friend of mine on Facebook, and it will quickly become evident that I could qualify as one of those annoying people who post the insignificant details about my day in a status message.

Why do I do it? Because God provides so many positive treats in my life, and I feel the world needs a more optimistic presence. Yes, I go through trials just like everybody else, but I feel as if there is always more than one way to look at a tough situation. Unfortunately it seems as if there are a lot of bitter people in the world who are constantly complaining about what is happening in their life….and those thoughts reveal themselves on social networking sites. Moods on MySpace are cranky, and words on Facebook are heavy. Therefore, I strive to post the positives of my day to avoid getting hung up on what went wrong.

Alright, I feel as if I have talked enough about social networking. While I still have a lot of opinions on MySpace and Facebook, I will probably save them for another blog in the future. Just as a side note, I have not yet entered the Twitter door, and I currently have no immediate plans to do so.

Since this is a blog about subjects I tend to be verbal about, I will move on to an entirely new subject, but is still related from a communication standpoint. The avenues of communication are many, and this generation is finding more and more ways to communicate information. It seems very fitting they call this the Information Age. Among the new toys on the market, nothing has skyrocketed more in the last several years as text messaging. What began as a novel idea of sending electronic messages to one another on the internet (e-mail), eventually found its way to the cell phone.

The first person-to-person text message was sent in from the UK in 1992 by a telecommunications industry engineer wishing an associate Merry Christmas. In the years following this break-through mobile phone feat, the growth of text messaging was sluggish, with the target consumers being those who were hearing-impaired. In my opinion, this slow start was probably due to cell phones being a brand new invention, and people were still in awe of the fact they could call people from a phone that didn’t require a cord. Eventually though, the cell phone honeymoon died off and people were becoming immune to the traditional calling routine. This no doubt warranted cell phone companies to create something fresh and new to keep customers knocking at their doors. It was about this time that texting REALLY started to take off, and by 2008, the number of text messages worldwide well-exceeded the trillions mark.

I found an interesting article from our credible friends over at Wikipedia regarding the history of text messaging. It says that the University of Queensland in Australia found that “text messaging is the most addictive digital service on mobile or internet, and is equivilant in addictiveness to cigarette smoking.” I don’t care what people say about Wikipedia, but I actually believe this statement.

So who wants to get caught up in this? Well, obviously thousands of people from all over the world. It is estimated that 2 out of 3 Americans are texting…..but hey, I am not one to judge, because I could probably see the day when I will be texting with everyone else. I’m just trying to comprehend why everyone is so addicted to it. I hear of parents who are so frustrated and baffled because their teenager far-exceeded the limit of text messages for the month. They are at a loss of what to do because their children are so insistent on sending text messages all the time.

Why is this? I have not been able to understand what the hype is about texting. For me personally, nothing is better than to have a one-on-one conversation with a friend. I thirst to see body language and to hear tone of voice when communicating. Verbal and nonverbal communication adds such a powerful dynamic to a conversation that words on a screen simply cannot reveal.

The first frustration I have with texting deals with two people trying to carry on a lengthy conversation with each other using their thumbs on a keypad. It can be a light-hearted conversation, but do they truly know what their friends voice sounds like? What if the conversation turns heavy? Will the other person be able to detect a shift in the tone of the words?

A prime example of my frustrations with texting took place recently when I was counseling a friend who’s girlfriend was about to break-up with him, and he didn’t know what to do. After some rather lengthy talks in the office, I found out 100% of the communication between him and his girlfriend over the entire duration of the weekend was via texting. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend is an extremely tough and sensitive conversation with many emotions and mixed feelings, and this interaction was taking place with words on a screen. The brain was forced to interpret the mood of the situation, and what could have started as an innocent text on Friday resulted in being blown way out of proportion and ending the relationship by Sunday. I’m not saying if texting was not involved, then the relationship would have survived…..I just feel that a much better understanding of the situation would have existed for both individuals with one-on-one communication involving the use of vocal cords and gestures. The road would have been significantly less bumpy with the lack of misinterpretation.

The second issue I have with texting is the addictive factor. Okay, so its perfectly fine to be addicted to something….depending on what it is of course. However, the addictive factor to texting has resulted in significant amounts of disrespect caused by people texting at inappropriate times. All too often, I will be sitting in a classroom, at a lecture hall, in a church service, or in a meeting and someone will be texting away as if they have no care as to what is going on around them. Texting at inappropriate times has become a pet peeve down deep inside of me, and if someone really wants to get under my skin, then try texting someone at church.

This past weekend when my parents were visiting me at Highland, the subject of texting came up at the meal table, and my dad said texting may be in the Lewis family future someday…..and he is probably right. In fact, when that day comes, I will probably start texting and find it very helpful in communicating with people. I just can’t help but ask questions about why people choose to text instead of call….chat on Facebook instead of chat on Skype….send an email to someone 300 feet away instead of getting up and talking to them face-to-face.

So there you have it, Nate’s Head of Random Thoughts. My goal for this first blog is to spill my thoughts out for the world to see. I have no idea how much of the world will see it….probably just a couple people. I do not know how many more blogs like this I will feel like doing, but I think its pretty cool. I may keep it up to date with Geocaching escapades, or rainfall reports….who knows. You might even hear news about who I went to see in concert, or how many new police cars I have in my collection.

If this comes across as random, then I consider it a success.

In closing, I want to wish each and everyone of you a very happy Thanksgiving. I challenge you to put down the texting, put down the emails, the Facebook, and the MySpace…..and VERBALLY tell someone face-to-face how much you love them and how thankful you are to have them in your life.