Задание №23460 ЕГЭ по Английскому языку

Texting or just being rude?

The excessive reliance on cell phones, iPods, and computers by everyone had always been a personal annoyance of mine on campus. I would rant and vent for hours about friends who would text while conversing with me, students engrossed in Facebook during class, and classmates who neglected to express gratitude for my holding the door open while they chatted away on their cell phones.

However, as I sat in class engaging in a conversation with a fellow student last Thursday, I had a sudden realization that I was not so different from those whom I had scolded. While conversing, I impulsively delved into my bag, retrieved my cell phone, and commenced text messaging with an old friend. As my finger hovered over the send button, it dawned on me. I had been casting stones while residing inside a glass house. I was that friend who would text someone else in the midst of a conversation. In that moment, my annoyance transformed into the realization that technology has unconsciously made all of us, myself included, impolite.

When strolling around campus, it is nearly impossible to find students who are disconnected from their technological devices. Everywhere one looks, students are engaged in conversations, texting, or tweeting on their cell phones. They have earbuds securely nestled in their ears and an iPod tucked away in a pocket, purse, or backpack.

Collectively, we fail to detach ourselves long enough to utter a simple "thank you" or "you're welcome" when someone holds a door open for us, or to say "excuse me" when we accidentally bump into someone in the hallway, or even to offer a "bless you" when someone sneezes. Our technological immersion has eroded the most basic of courtesies.

I come from a small... well... cramped high school (with 263 students in my senior class in 2008). Even there, expressions of gratitude, politeness, and other pleasantries were rare occurrences, despite the limitations on technology usage before and during school hours. This provided me with an intriguing perspective. In that small, close-knit community of high schoolers in a rural town, I noticed that hearing someone utter the two magical words after holding a door open was an uncommon sight.

However, if someone were to accidentally bump into me, I am certain that both of us would laugh — not out of rudeness, but because before technology consumed us, people would read books, complete homework, or write essays on their way to class. The only difference now is that our books have become smaller and equipped with tiny buttons. When two students collide, it becomes an unspoken understanding, a secret handshake that silently conveys, "Hey, what's up? Yeah, I know the feeling, I'm just as busy too." Perhaps there isn't a sudden epidemic of rudeness; it may be something that has always been present.

Instead of engaging in conversations with new people, we opt to text message our old friends, tweet to our Facebook "friends," or browse the internet. We choose to confine ourselves within the protective bubble of technology. And within this bubble, it has become completely acceptable to be impolite. Apparently, the new "norm" is to physically spend time with one person while incessantly chattering away on your cellphone. Do people genuinely believe that it makes them appear cool or "in demand"? It truly grates on my nerves. Is this the world we now inhabit? Are two people no longer capable of sitting together, sharing personal time and space?

I can no longer sustain this pet peeve that I, too, have fallen victim to. It would be more enjoyable to continue venting about my friends who never cease to text, my classmates who prohibited laptops or the “thank yous” never received. Instead, I will be too busy picking up the pieces of my own glass house.