Problems faced by the SMS generation of Pakistan!

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Over the years mobile phones have become an integral part of our lives. From being only a minor portion of our lives only a decade ago today they define our lives.

Sure mobile phones have made our lives easier but with blessings come problems. Following are some of the problems being faced by the mobile phone generation of today!

  1. Always have to stay in touch with others

It is amazing how text messages allow people to never let anyone miss them. The intractable urge to stay in touch or “hello, hi” or “hey, I just wanted to ask about you” is annoying at best. How many times during a day did people inquire about each other’s health, the weather and what not when there weren’t any mobile phones anyway?

  1. Fwd msgs can get irritating

I feel like stabbing my phone every time I get a forwarded text message that essentially asks me to propagate the insanity further or the wrath of God will befall upon me and lightning will strike me dead. Really? That is not going to happen, people. Stop being so superstitious! Also, people think it’s extremely pious to send a religious text which has no context or reference to everyone in their contact list. It’s not.

  1. The endless friendship requests

Sometimes a sliver of hope revives my faith in our nation and I believe that we are growing and evolving, that there is still a lot of potential here. Needless to say, I am proved wrong whenever a lonely kid at some small, dark shop decides to embark on a “fraandship” journey by randomly dialing numbers. If, out of sheer luck, it’s a girl then bingo! She will be receiving “fraandship” requests for quite a long time to come. Seriously, one could use all that energy into something constructive but heck no, that’s not going to happen because text message addiction just touched new heights.

  1. SMS’s Lack manners

Common courtesy seems to have jumped out of the window. Just as it is rude to answer a call when a civil conversation is going on, it’s impolite to text message while another person is trying extremely hard to get a point across. How hard is that to understand? It really doesn’t help if you tell the “addict” that it’s rude because their fingers will still be glued to the keypad of their phones.

  1. Those lame advertisements

Because a wave of text messaging paranoia has overtaken the youngsters, the service providers think it is best to cash in on this opportunity. They introduce newer SMS packages every now and then to keep them occupied. The more messages, the better. A recent ad claims “Never let you fingers rest”.

  1. That chat language

Grammar and syntax have taken a backseat. It’s most disturbing when you see a college student’s paper full of “chat” language. Not only is it completely irrelevant, it’s difficult to understand and doesn’t leave a good impression. Why slaughter language – be it English, Urdu or any of the regional languages?

  1. And those stupid SMS invitations

Text messaging has annihilated face-to-face communication. Now everything happens over a text, be it a party, birthday or a wedding invite. When did civility desert us? Call me obsolete but I still think some things deserve to be done properly.

Text messaging might be the norm these days but excess of anything becomes a problem and excessive messaging can lead to people facing psychological problems. Maybe it’s time our government takes immediate steps to control this!