How texting has changed society

Ever since texting and instant messaging were introduced, I have hardly made an actual phone call to someone unless it is a business or my less technical savvy relatives. I feel that although this is very convenient, I would much rather talk to someone and hear their voices whether it be in person or a simple phone call. Also I hear complaints from teachers, including my brother that their students are using abbreviations like they would in text in their essays. For example "ur", "u" etc. I find these to be really really annoying because abbreviations like these are missing 2 or 3 letters tops and it's not improving grammar skills at all. I also think texting and instant messaging can have a negative on social skills because talking to someone in person is much different than typing to them. Another thing bad about text conversations is that you cannot detect a tone or whether someone is being sarcastic and word choice could convey the wrong method if no tone is heard. Oh and if you don't respond to someones text, they could be mad at you for days or think that you don't like them at all when simply, they just forgot to respond. I myself would wonder what this girl thought of me when I didn't get a response and it hurt for days. I've learned to give the benefit of the doubt since then. These are the biggest cons to textual conversations, however there are many benefits as well. When someone texts you, you have time to think about your response. It's not socially acceptable to talk to someone over the phone or in person and wait 5 minutes to gather your thoughts and say what you feel. This is much different during an IM session or text conversation. And you can talk to someone you adore for hours about something that could maybe last 10 minutes over the phone. Or instead of waiting for a person to pick up the phone, tell them the plans for the day you can send a quick text with the address or whatever and with smart phones, you can highlight the address and have google maps look it up. This is extremely convenient. So there are are many nice things to texting, but I really do miss having conversations over the phone or in person and the internet and cell phones limit that opportunity because that's just the way people communicate these days.