Can you stop fucking texting for five fucking minutes?

The BBQ Pit
21

[QUOTE=Hampshire]

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!!”
[/QUOTE]

I’m not a phone person. So to tell the truth, I rather like texting. OTOH, I send maybe 5-6 texts a week, if that, and they’re either to my cousin so that I can send her new baby pictures, a co-worker/close friend after The Office or when she’s working out in the field, or to my good friend in town, and most messages are about 1-2 sentences long. I get my point across, and don’t have to worry about talking on the phone. Most of my messages involve pictures, too, though, so I do end up talking to them at various other points if I don’t have a picture to send. My husband rolls his eyes when he sees me texting, and tells me just to call them, too.

I don’t see it as any worse than talking on a cell phone - both are hella-annoying if you’re being ignored because your lunch date/partner/whoever can’t put their phone down. My mom is like that and it annoys the ever-living shit out of me.

Oh, and she’s a loud talker, too. So not only is she ignoring me while she’s on the phone in Target, but EVERYONE in the damn store can hear her conversation. :rolleyes:

E.

22

[QUOTE=danceswithcats]
Folks like that need to have their phones thrown in the nearest toilet, for their own good.
[/QUOTE]

Sometimes it’s worth surgically removing the head or hand from the phone first.

And sometimes it’s more effective not to. The trick is knowing which one is more useful.

23

If I wasn’t such a cheapskate I’d text a lot more than I do, just because I absofuckinglutely hate talking on the phone. Not only am I a typical guy - a 30 second conversation is usually long enough for everything that needs to be said, but even on landlines I have trouble understanding people, the sounds blur and everyone is either too quiet or too loud. But there’s no way in hell I’m going to pay an extra 15¢ for each message.
That said, put down the damn phone! Text or voice, it doesn’t matter - If you’re out with a person or group there’s no excuse for spending the time talking/texting someone else.

24

[QUOTE=tdn]
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.
[/QUOTE]

No, my mom does it too. She just got back from a two week vacation in Spain, so I invited her out to lunch. We took her car (she’s terrified of being in a vehicle piloted by me) and she spent the entire time talking to friends on her cell phone. No text messaging, at least, but she did conduct all her conversations on the speaker phone setting.

At least she knows to turn it off once we get into the restaurant, though.

25

I had friends who did that when they came to visit me. So we were sightseeing and I was driving them around on top of a mountain overlooking the ocean and her head is down because she is texting. And that continued the whole time I was with her. Every other minute because her phone would buzz. It was incredibly rude and I was wasting my time. At one point I even asked if something was the matter because of the non stop texting but she didn’t get the message. The height of this came when I was meeting them somewhere but I was driving and called them to see where downtown they were and they wouldnt answer their phones. So I had to pull over, find a parking spot and text them. Only then did I get an answer to their location. And they knew I was driving down to meet them. F9 is awful and it takes me forever to type out two words.

26

Source: Washington Post - 20 May 2007

Sounds like a severe case of OCD along with self-esteem issues.

27

[QUOTE=Liberal]
Amen! Personally, I don’t even wait for a second time. If someone takes a call in my presence, I walk away. Just leave 'em flat.
[/QUOTE]

Exactly. A person gets exactly one chance to do that shit in around me.

28

My Wife was riding a ski-lift with our niece. The niece received a text.

The big news?

Ann Nicohl Smith had died.
:rolleyes:

29

I’ve been using cell phones for 10 years now and I don’t even know how to text. Never recieved one far as I can tell either.
And like others have said, a thirty second to one minute call should be able to cover just about all the things you need to talk about.

I don’t get the whole texting thing.

30

[QUOTE=Uncommon Sense]
I’ve been using cell phones for 10 years now and I don’t even know how to text. Never recieved one far as I can tell either.
And like others have said, a thirty second to one minute call should be able to cover just about all the things you need to talk about.

I don’t get the whole texting thing.
[/QUOTE]

I guess I could start another thread but I might as well just ask here:

Does texting seem to be a predominantely “girl” thing? I don’t do it and neither do any guys I know. My wife and nieces on the other hand- nonstop.

31

If you hate texting, dont ever come to Ireland… looking at one service provider alone, O2 Ireland, users sent 428 million texts between Jan 1st and March 31st. In the same period, the average monthly call minutes decreased!

Yes we love our texting. It is rude though for people to constantly text/ talk on the phone when there in your company. Personally I hate it when people walk and text, unless there really used to it they just begin to walk soo slow.

32

Amazing, with all the progress in technology over the past 100 years, the only thing people today seem to want is a portable Western Union.

33

[QUOTE=adam yax]
Amazing, with all the progress in technology over the past 100 years, the only thing people today seem to want is a portable Western Union.
[/QUOTE]
If I ever starting using text messaging, I am so using clipped sentences and lots and lots of STOP.

34

If you don’t text because it takes forever, check and see if predictive text is on. If not, turn it on.

Texting while out with another person is rude. Personally, I think a wet willy is the appropriate response to this situation.

35

Texting is a chickenshit way to avoid a real conversation, for whatever reason. When texting, there is no beginning or end, and no finality.

As opposed to (real phone call) “Hey, I had a great time last night, want to do it again?”
“I don’t know, maybe, but…”

Texting: "what up? cool. K. laterz…

36

I will amend my post to say I don’t mean kids texting mundane bullshit back and forth in class, etc, but people who grew up back when we actually talked on the phone.

37

I actually like texting. Receiving a text for me is less disruptive than receiving a phone call and leaves me at leisure to respond whenever I get around to it. However, I hate people who try to settle complicated matters via text - dude, why not just call, it’s quicker and less expensive. And I hate people who don’t turn off their key tones bleep bloop blipblip - drives me nuts.

However, regardless of whether you like texting or not, the situation the OP describes is incredibly rude. Actually, anything involving a phone for a length of time while you’re supposed to be meeting with someone is incredibly rude (I’m not talking about receiving an occasional important call and finishing it as quick as possible). But if you receive a text, you KNOW it’s not a life-threatening emergency or something that needs to be dealt with immediately, or else the other person would have called.

38

[QUOTE=ZipperJJ]
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.
[/QUOTE]

Ah heh heh heh…that’s kinda the problem. We don’t get along all that well (he’s an energetic extrovert who always has to get his way and I’m an introvert with control issues), but my group of friends is good friends with him, so we’re stuck together. If I blow him off, I blow the entire group off. And they adore him - in our little family/friend structure, he’s the baby.

He gets the messages from his other friends - we’re all 2nd or 3rd year post-secondary students, he’s graduating from high school this year, which makes it even more awkward for me because he’s more immature.

…I’m typing this in class, which is a computer lab, during independent work time. The cellphone of the guy next to me is constantly vibrating (it’s so quiet in here you can hear it) and he’s texting back and forth.

Yeah, I have a way to get in touch with people. If they aren’t online in an instant messager, I leave them an offline message, or if it is urgent I pick up the bloody phone and call. Seriously, I run out of things to say when I hang out with people, how can you leave school for the day and still be texting the same people for the rest of the evening?

39

I have this theory that people who constantly text and chat on the phone while at dinner or just driving along or even in the company of others, are simply people who can’t stand to be alone with their own thoughts. Maybe they begin to hear crickets and that freaks them out. Maybe texting constantly is what’s keeping them from grabbing a rifle and climbing a tower.

Or perhaps they are just enormous asshole casseroles.