Blog #3 Sociological Theory in My Life

As sad as it is to admit, my cell phone plays a huge role in my life. I take it everywhere with me. I'm not one of those people that is constantly texting or calling people, but I do feel weird if its not with me. I wouldn't say I feel lost without it, but on the days when I accidentally leave my phone at home I worry that I will miss an important text or call and will still go to check my messages during the day. This kind of relates to my blog about habits. It has become a habit of mine to worry about my messages and where my phone is. Usually I get casual texts from people just to talk but on the days when I don't have my phone or I have not checked it, I always feel like I'm missing the text of a lifetime. Some people think texting is bad because it takes away from our face to face communication and I actually agree that it does, but I also find it very convenient for those days (most days) when I am too busy to talk on the phone. It's so much easier to just send a quick text while I am doing my homework and not have to worry about wasting time. From a functionalist point of view, my phone would be something that I use to seek relative stability. I use it to communicate with people and keep my friends and myself on the same page and not left out. If I weren't talking with them it might create drama or something, so my phone helps keep things stable. For conflict theory, my phone is probably seen as something that brings change to my life. It changes my relationships with people because we tend to use different language while texting which causes conflict. If there is a misunderstanding because of the communication through my phone, this brings on change in my life and possibly even conflict.From symbolic interactionism, my cell phone 'lingo' is not the same as every day talk. With face to face communication, people see how I react and hear my voice change through my emotions. With a cell phone, we lose that symbolism. For example, when people read a text they hear it in their head and interpret it as just that.If they were talking tome, though, they may hear my says something differently and therefore give what I say a whole new meaning.