In a different era, texting was not commonplace.
Instant messages were new to the scene in the earliest days of the 2000's and the youngest faction of the culturally privileged capitalized on the efficiency gains and asynchronous anonymity of the fledgling medium.
Earlier generations, meanwhile, treated the dawn of truncated messages and abrupt communication styles with disdain. A 2002 professor condemned textspeak as “bleak, bald, sad shorthand,” a mask for “dyslexia, poor spelling and mental laziness.” Parents looked at their children's new communication habits with dismay as they foresaw the breakdown of literacy and the loss of proper forms of language.
As has been standard for every age of innovation, the old guard looks at the changing tides and chooses to leave Chesterton's fence unmolested, to keep the status quo the same, to call for a moratorium on change.
But something shifted as a realization dawned on everyone about this new medium: texting started to turn a profit.
As Nicolas Carr puts it in Superbloom, "As textspeak in its various forms became indispensable to communication, it turned into a valuable business asset."
This followed a pattern digital technologies had begun to follow:
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New entrants create an initial outrage or panic, a cultural malaise and wariness that is (if not exactly thoughtful and logical) warranted and intuitive.
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Then that technology proves itself in the market. It pugilistically replaces some form of social life in a meaningful way (remember, the fastest way to convert users is always to reduce the friction involved in an analog activity and offer a more gamified online alternative).
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Whenever a technology becomes profitable, everyone turns their gaze away from their former condemnation and fears about a new technology to the potential gains they might have by its use.
The reality is adults, with an abrupt about-face, turned into frequent texters and quieted any dissension in their ranks about the new moneymaking medium.
The historical hypocrisy of a transformative technology like texting is quickly being overshadowed by our current dilemma's own sociological turn.
We are in the midst of a cultural sea change around AI and LLMs that is flagrantly focussed on profit as an end in and of itself.
Any alarm that springs up around the innovations of data centers, chatbots, and deepfakes will be just as rapidly smothered by the unending march of "progress" and "profit."
As value-hungry vultures feed on our cultural capitulation, the iron commitment that held convictions intact will continue to break down our ability to choose an honorable harvest, an ethical implementation, and a more true way through the growth of technology's evolution in culture.