This isn’t a rant but relatively concise and not rhetorical.
I love email- among many other advantages you have a copy of it until you delete it. I don’t mind cell phones (though I’ll admit I keep it off more than on and am frequently fussed at about it [“I can never get you!”- it’s because I don’t like to talk when I’m driving, pissing, working, or don’t feel like talking!]). I’ve done some light blogging even.
But I almost neurotically loathe texting. I don’t like getting it, I will not send it, I hate the teeny tiny keyboards and limited characters, and I don’t even want to really learn what twitter and twell mean.
Is there anyone else who doesn’t like texting in a box, with a fox, with a twitter, in the shitter, whatever and wherever else? I’m beginning to feel like an anomaly since even my 65 year old boss and 70 year old cousin text me now.
No, I don’t think you are. And it’s not just an old/young thing either. Just yesterday, a 22-year-old friend of mine was telling me how much she hated to text, because it was just so much easier and more efficient to actually call the person.
I didn’t like it until I got an iPhone. The keyboard’s just big enough that it’s actually usable, and Apple has a pretty good spellchecker running that corrects errors on the fly, with a surprisingly high rate of success. I still don’t send texts that often, though - if I’m typing something on my phone in the first place, I might as well be using it to send an email.
Yup, Twitter is something you do via www.twitter.com and can be read on the computer or (sometimes) the cell phone, whereas texting is not associated with any web site and is primarily done via cell phones.
I like texting for specific things; it’s a great way to send a quick, one-way communication when you don’t want to bug someone. For example, I’d rather text my husband if he’s at the store and I realize we’re out of milk: “Honey, please pick up milk.” It’s better than phoning because 1) I don’t know if he’s at the store, driving, standing at the checkout, whatever - and I don’t want to make him drop everything for a non-urgent message and 2) I don’t really need an acknowledgment. He either gets the milk or he doesn’t, no big deal, he doesn’t need to call me back.
It’s also good for passing info via text, for example, phone numbers or addresses. Just last week Mr. Athena called me from his cell to ask me to find someone’s cell phone number for him. I had to dig up the number, it wasn’t at my fingertips. I could have called him back with the number, but he was driving, and he probably didn’t have a pen handy. I texted it to him, and not only does he have the number right there, but our phones recognize it as a phone number and he just has to click it to call the number. Much easier than a phone call.
Other than those specific functions, texting is a hassle. If you really need to have a conversation, it’s easier just to call someone.
Edit: just saw what Miller wrote. We both have iPhones as well, and they make it easy to text. I can’t imagine doing it with one of those phones without any sort of keyboard. Ick!
It’s useful for when you want to say something short and simple to an acquaintance; you don’t have to go through the whole “Hey, how are ya?” bullshit and you can get right to the point.
Plus it lets you time-shift communications until it’s convenient for both people – more efficiently than having each side listen through a 3-minutes voicemail, too.
If you don’t like the keyboard, get one of those folding Nokia phones, a Blackberry, a Sidekick, an iPhone, whatever.
That said… I still much prefer IMing to texting. It’s not the idea of texting I don’t like, it’s the implementation, and a laptop/AIM just does the same thing so much better.
That I can completely understand. It’s the “Hey, what are you doing right now?” thing that I can’t. (I’ll admit I also hate chatting online, but keep forgetting to disable the “Jon is available for private chat” mechanism.)
Yeah, texting definitely has it’s place. I can’t imagine having a conversation with it; that’s not really what it’s for though. As others have said, it’s for sending non-urgent messages that don’t require an acknowledgement and aren’t worth interrupting someone. It’s also good for passing along info to people you just plain don’t want to *talk *to, such as relatives who YOU NEVER CALL, MY GOD WHY DON’T YOU EVER CALL, SO HOW ARE THE KIDS…
I text a lot from work. I can’t really talk on the phone there, but I can text between tasks. It makes my job much less tedious.
Count me as another “I generally don’t like it, but it has its purpose” poster.
In addition to the already-mentioned not-urgent note purpose, it’s also useful for quick communications in loud situations where you could not hear the telephone due to excessive ambient noise. I found this out when we went to a bar that had the music volume loud enough that you have to shout in order to talk to the person next to you, multiple rooms, and I was separated from my wife. A quick “What room are you in?” and response, and we could find each other.
I used to text Mr. S at work when he worked as a school custodian; I’d send him little mash notes, or little news tidbits, or “call me when convenient.” He was allowed to carry a cell phone and have it on, so I could get his attention and not interrupt him if he was busy with something. But after a while when the job was going down the shitter and he got short-timer’s disease, he told me to just call him.
Now that he works as a nursing assistant in an Alzheimer’s unit, he’s not allowed to have his phone on when he’s working. So I just wait for him to call me when he’s on a break.
We use our (cheap Tracfone) phones mostly to call each other, or to make phone calls when we’re out and about; they’re usually off, and we rarely give anyone the number. I haven’t sent a text since he quit the custodian job.
I recently learned how to text, and I find it incredibly annoying. I can do it, in a pinch, but it takes me about 5 minutes, by which time I could have phoned or probably sent a foot messenger to deliver my message. I don’t accept text messages, and I don’t send them.
Amusingly, about 3 years ago, when I was very pregnant with our last son, my husband received a text message saying, “Call Home. Urgent!” He called me, all panicky, thinking I was in labor. I was actually outside, getting my oldest kid off the preschool bus, and I told him I had no idea how to text, and if it was really urgent, texting him would be the last thing on my mind! I’d have hit his speed-dial number on the phone, or used our nifty little walkie-talkie cell phone feature, before I’d tap out some text message.
I was generally prejudiced against texting. I rarely read texts. Then my ex-wife sent me a text regarding an important matter (our daughter’s schooling). It was a long message, and detailed, but I didn’t receive it for weeks because, well, I rarely read texts. And she knew this.
Frankly, I was so appalled that she thought it was acceptable to send that kind of information by text that I pretty much decided I was having nothing to do with the entire medium.
I text almost exclusively. It’s really easy to do and, here, at least, it is much, much cheaper than calling.
Mobile voice rates are absolute murder here, but I can get unlimited data for a song. My voice plan is the smallest I was offered when I bought the phone. I only use it when I absolutely have to call somebody and I am not at home or the office. Like ordering a pizza on my way home so I can pick it up en route.
For me, texting (really emailing in this case) is easy, minimally invasive, and inexpensive. The phones here have a pretty extensive character set, too, so that is not much of a problem for me.
Texting also gives me an outlet in which to go crazy with little decorations, smilies, hearts, and animated gifs. Heck, those aren’t even optional with a lot of people here.
I used to be really annoyed by it, but now my husband and I exchange frequent texts when I’m on the way home from work. It doesn’t affect anyone else, so it’s a less obnoxious way to communicate than speaking aloud.
Here’s my favorite text exchange so far, while I was on the train and he was waiting in the car to pick me up:
I’m a techno-hybrid. I love email. I’ve been surfing the web before anyone knew what the web ever was. I’ve had blogs, I know how to do HTML.
I hate texting.
In fact, I’ll go further-- I hate cel phones. I have a work-issued Blackberry, but I don’t own one personally. I still use a landline at home. Frankly, I just don’t want to be that connected to anyone. If you want to talk to me, come talk to me. Send me an email, make an appointment. When I’m walking around, or out getting coffee, or spending time with friends and family, I don’t want to work.
I remember twenty years ago, when the only people who had pagers were doctors. I’m not a doctor. Why do I need to be that reachable by anyone?
I know that I won’t be able to hold out forever-- if/when I ever have kids, I’m sure I’ll have get a phone as a matter of course.
My husband and I are both over 50, and we occasionally text just to touch base. He works in a loud environment, so I prefer texting to leaving a vm if he can’t pick up when I call. I’m not gabby on the phone normally anyway, so texting is a great convenience imho.
