Am I the only person who just can't stand the very notion of texting?

[Giraffe]

I find texting incredibly useless (emailing and calling satisfies all of my remote communication needs), except when I go to large conferences. There, it’s unbelievably useful, as you’ll often want to coordinate with people to meet up but are sitting in talks all day. You can send and receive a text in the middle of a talk without disturbing anybody. Very handy.

[gurujulp]

@zagloba

I texted quite a bit when I lived in Poland. I had a pay as you go phone, but texting and incoming calls were free.

That seems kind of like the cell company shooting themselves in the foot- you just text and say call me…

@Mudshark

As much as I hate to admit it, I gave up on grammar in texts after about a month. However, I absolutely will not use numbers as letters, or single letters for words (as in "are u going 2 the store b4 u come home).

I have finally broken down on using ‘K’ for okay- simply to acknowledge receipt of the text if someone tells me something that needs acknowledgment but not a real response. I type everything else out though.

@billfish678

I think the “problem” alot of us have is that much texting is not being used for the “get milk messages”.

Its often IMO being used for instant or near instant communication and often at a conversational level of the “whazzzz uppppp?!” variety. Which is fine if thats what you wanna do.

Many of us have little or no interest in that kind of stuff.

The reason I prefer them to text me that stupid shit is that I can ignore it- if they call me about it I usually think it might be important enough to answer the phone even if I don’t want to talk or really don’t have the time.
Most of my own experience is that my friends text me to say, in effect, ‘are you too busy to talk?’

That way they aren’t bugging me, but they are letting me know they have something less than earth-shattering that they would like to have a conversation about. And if I am busy or asleep, they get the idea and aren’t offended if I don’t respond.

[gurujulp]

@Apocalypso

There are only 2 people that text me. One is the guy working on my car, since he’s not allowed to use his phone at work. The other is my sister, who routinely carries on novel-length conversations with all her friends through texting.

I will occasionally reply to a text with a brief message (“yes/no”, etc), but I do not initiate texts. My cellphone makes as much noise when I get a text as it does when I get a call, so it’s not any more or less disruptive. It’s much faster and easier for me to call someone than it is to text them. If they’re in the middle of something, they can let their voicemail get it.

All of my cell phones have had a function you can set where even if the phone is on audible for ring, you can set the message to either vibrate, or only light up the screen without even the vibrate.

[Declan]

People seem to forget that the cell phone industry has been evolving. Those calls and voice mails that you speak of would cost alot more back in the day, sure a VM is not a big deal, bu get twenty of them in a day from friends,family, work, and wrong numbers, and your looking at a good portion of your available minutes. Today thats not a big deal with the various plans, but it was a serious inconvience then, worse if you were on a paygo plan.

Your paying by the minute for not only the real content, the meat of the conversation but also the um, ahs, gimme a sec here type thing. The air does’nt care what it carries. Texts were and are a reliable metered way of transmitting short bursts of information, when even if you had an email capable phone, data rates were horrible.

Till i got the iphone i was big on texts, now i find i am using email way more. Given the price of netbooks and what they can do, they are going to be the next evolution of the pda. Couple that with a cellular data plan, texting will fade to obscurity. Email has all the advantages of texting, but the ability for more people to convert over with pretty close to full qwerty keyboards.

And if you want to abstain from texting or what ever the next thing is, fine its still a free country.

Declan

[HerbalTea]

I love texting. I think it’s a lot more convenient and more discreet than calling someone. There’s nothing better for short, non-urgent messages. For instance, I usually text my mom when I am on my way home on the train to ask if she can pick me up from the station. If she’s busy or taking a nap at the time, she won’t reply and I’ll just walk home. It’s a lot better than calling and making her scramble to answer her phone. I text my dad because he’s hard of hearing, so if I call him, I’d have practically shout what I have to say.

I even hold conversations through text. I admit I’m one of those youngsters who are glued to their phones and are quite adept at handling the tiny keys, but it’s really a lot easier than calling someone. I text to wish people good luck right before their exams or presentations, to clarify something about homework, to remind people to bring something, to ask if a sick friend is feeling better, etc. All of these don’t really require a reply. Calling forces people to talk to you when they might be busy, asleep, or just not in the mood to talk. If they’re not busy and I’m not busy, we’ll text back and forth about random stuff without having to disturb other people who may be around us. Texting (I always text properly with punctuation, capitalization, and everything) also allows me to think about what I’m going to say and if it’s really important.

[vandal]

There are times when people can’t answer the phone. Because of this, it’s a lot easier to send them a text message. On the same token, there are times when you can’t make a phone call, so instead, you send a text.

[jabiru]

I don’t text often but it’s convenient at times - more convenient than phoning. I needed to ask my son a question tonight but he was working and not answering his phone. One brief text message and I got a two word reply which was more than adequate.