Technology: it’s everywhere.

It’s the computer screen in front of you, the camera you take pictures with, and the phone in your back pocket.
The glories of technology allow its users countless ways to converse with each other be it via phone call, text, email, instant message or Facebook.
In some sense, this abundance of communication is extraneous; unnecessary. Why bother emailing or texting when you can pick up the phone to speak in person?
To many, there really is no difference between a call, an email and a text.

Yet, to thousands of others, the difference lies in basic etiquette.
“There is definitely a difference between a call, a text, and an email,” junior Bryana Schantz said when asked the differences between the three.
Phone calls are definitely the most formal. You call someone to speak with them in person whenever you’re dealing with business or something important like a birthday.
Emails are also formal, but somewhat less so then phone calls. I would normally email a person after calling them to say, set up an appointment or a meeting.
And texting? Texting is for friends, family, anyone really.
Texting is like conversation.
The tech generation; they’re the middle schoolers, the high schoolers, the college kids, the people who know nothing different than having a cell phone at hand and a laptop in tow at all times.

However, the common courtesies many younger adults seem to take for granted often go unnoticed by those unfamiliar with the courtesies of modern technology.
Several months ago, I sat in my room working on an essay. My parents were in the living room reading magazines, when my phone began to buzz.
After a quick glance affirmed the caller to be my mother, I ignored it, fi

guring she had accidentally called me.
To my surprise, my phone buzzed again, several moments later, with a new text, from Mom.
“Did you order your books from Amazon?”
I was shocked.
I was in my room within 30 feet of my mother in the opposite room. Why on Earth would she ever feel the need to call or text me when we could speak with each other in person?
Following a brief moment of frustration, I walked into the living room, and demanded to know why I had been called and texted by someone in the adjacent room.
The response, “Oh, I thought it would be easier.”
It was at this moment that I suddenly became aware of the unwritten, unspoken rules of technology I had been following my entire life.
Intrinsically, I knew it was rude to call or text someone when you could talk to them in person.
Intrinsically, I knew that a call was more formal than a text, an email w

as less formal than a Facebook message.
Yet, somehow, these unwritten street rules of technology had completely evaded my mother, and most others members of her generation.
Those who embrace it quickly become accustomed to the speed, efficiency and ease of digital communication.
Those who use it less often, or prefer other forms of communication, may be less familiar with the etiquette of technology.
So the next time your mother calls you from the next room, be patient.