Yeah, so I have this friend. Nice guy and everything, but he can’t for the life of him stop texting for more than a few minutes at a time. No matter where we are, hanging out in the basement, eating at a restaurant, going to a movie, anything, he’s constantly texting. I mean, if you’re getting a few texts every once in a while asking things like ‘wanna hang out later?’ it’s cool, but when you can’t fucking put your phone down for 5 minutes without getting a text and having to answer it, you have a damn problem.
No, seriously, he’ll leave the phone for a few minutes to talk to the friends who are with him in person, and then it’ll vibrate to tell him he’s got a new message, and there will be a queue of messages! Last night, for some reason, there was about a ten minute time delay in him getting any texts, and when they got through there were multiple messages! And he’s said he texts in class even though cellphones are banned there, and the teachers just overlook it because he’s a good student.
Like, shit, you are with a group of friends already. You told us you had no less than 4 invitations to go do stuff last night. I’d rather you go do something with them instead of constantly interrupting your time with us by texting with them.
I don’t understand how prevalent texting has gotten in the last few years. I graduated high school in 2004 and I only knew one person who compulsively texted people, and we gave her shit for it. Now this other friend totally gets a pass for it. But the fact he gets spoiled by our other friends is another Pit thread in itself, so I’ll leave this one as it is.
I will not socialize with people who insist on talking on the phone or texting the entire time they are spending time with me. I consider it a passive-aggressive way of saying “I’m too much in demand to spend time with you.” It is rude.
And before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, I am not talking about an occasional phone call or an emergency.
You ever ask him who the texts are from? Just other students or his girlfriend or what?
Life’s too short to be bogged down by a buddy like that. You need to call him out and tell him what a fucking drag he is to be around because of this texting shit. If it’s his girlfriend that’s texting him so much, bust his balls about it. If it’s a whole bunch of other people texting him just point out that he’s acting like a Japanese schoolgirl and bust his balls on that too.
I have a feeling that high school boys don’t care what’s “rude” or not. But if you point out how utterly lame he is, he might stop.
Or, if that doesn’t work, just stop hanging out and tell him straight up why.
I hate texting. There were quite a few misunderstandings between me and some of my Korean friends because they accused me of “ignoring” their text messages - I never saw the need to respond unless there was, er, a need to respond. “Wanna hang out tomorrow?” will get a response, but “OMG I saw a really cute guy 2day!” is not - sorry.
It’s convenient sometimes - like when you’re trying to find each other at a concert and you can’t hear anything over the noise - but I don’t see why people like to use it as a kind of mobile chatting device. And yes, it’s incredibly rude to be engaged in a text dialogue when you’re actually with other people. The fact that this has to be pointed out at all is mind-boggling.
I have no interest in hanging around with people who make it known by their behavior that they have no intention of EVER giving me their full attention.
It is incredibly disrespectful of the people he spends time with.
Not only does it annoy the hell out of me, I’m too fucking old to ever get the hang of it. I’ve sent 3 text messages in my life, and it takes a half an hour to do it. Maybe if my next phone has a qwerty keyboard I’ll text more often. I don’t like people texting while I’m socializing or even going off on an extended cell phone conversation.
When I was traveling in Europe, people in hostels would be texting all fucking night long. You can still hear the damn clicking for crying out loud! Of course, this isn’t as bad as making a racket at 5AM in a drunken stupor or screwing all night long. Get off my lawn and all that!
I hate texting. I’m 37. My thumbs aren’t as agile as they were a few years ago. Can my thirteen year old niece understand I would rather actually talk on the phone than try to type on the keypad? No, but I love her anyway. I mean it’s a goddamn phone. I want to use it as a phone, not some kind of dexterity test. Maybe I’m a dinosaur, but I like to have a conversation using real voices not pixels on a screen.
And don’t even get me started on those fucking Nextel walkie-talkie things.
A few years back, before texting was a big thing, I still had an urge to take away a friend’s cell phone. I hadn’t seen this friend in months, and we agreed to have lunch one day. She spent Every. Fucking. Moment. of the lunch talking to other people. It was rude beyond all reckoning.
Damn. I’d have been greatly tempted, after the first ten or fifteen minutes, to ask her, “Do you want to turn that off and talk to me?” and if I got anything but an apology and compliance, to ask the waiter to put my meal in a takeout container, pay up, and leave.
This was a while ago, so I don’t remember the details, but I sort of remember giving her enough of an annoyed look that she finally stopped taking calls and did talk to me. For a little while.
I wonder if it’s a generational thing. She was quite a bit younger than me.
Back in December I was on a cruise in the Bahamas. We spent one day in Key West, and my GF and I wanted to sample the pie that made the place famous. Other family members showed up and a few got pie. My niece basically hovered over the table, wolfing down her pie without really paying attention to it, all the while chatting on her cell to her BF. Her mother gave her a good reaming out over it, explaining how incredibly rude she was being. Props to SIL for that.
My wife does the text messaging thing with her coworkers/friends even when she’s home for the night. It drives me BATTY!
I swear it goes back to these people getting the thrill of passing little notes back and forth in grade school.
And since it’s pretty much a given that you both have cell phones, why don’t you just call the damn person!
The other night my wife gets a text message “oh, oh, my boss just texted me! she want’s to know if I can meet her at the bar!”
Me: “Why, what’s the problem?”
Wife: “She didn’t say. I’ll text her back.”
Me: “For god’s sake, why don’t you just freakin call her? It’s obvious she has her phone with her.”
She gave me a look like I was from Mars.
I refuse to take part in the texting crap. If someone texts me I immediately call them right back without reading the message and ask “What’s up? What do you want?”
“Did you read my message?”
“No, what did it say?”
“I was just asking what what you were doing later.”
“Then call me and ask me. I can answer a lot faster with this new invention called A PHONE!!”
Right, texting is the Devil’s work. I’ve got a young friend who I just love to pieces, but she prefers to communicate through text rather than phone and it drives me bananas. It doesn’t help that she’s got a phone with a full keyboard. I laboriously take about five mintues to type out a five-word reply to something and 10 seconds later, there’s two more paragraphs I have to reply to. Criminy.
And if that’s not enough, those damn kids from down the street won’t stay off my lawn.
It is now confirmed – you are not my above-mentioned niece. It’s a little scary seeing her text her sister. Her thumb is basically just a blur. In 30 seconds, she can type out the entire text of War and Peace.