I never text. My wife is on that shit like a buzzard on a gut wagon. Her friends too.
I had to figure out the text feature on my phone when two male college friends (both of whom have done possibly more than their fair share of dating younger women) started texting me. I’d had phone and email communication with each of them and at about the same time - a year and a half ago or so - they each started texting me, sometimes to answer emails. My daughter now texts me to say “I forgot lunch” and stuff like that. Ditto, occasionally from my husband. Those are the only people I get texts from. I’m a woman, married, and 37.
I have a few guy friends who text a lot. Most of my friends, regardless of gender, only text when necessary (like in a loud bar or something).
We’re in our mid-20s, if that makes a difference.
My sons (17 and 20) do it a lot. I did do it when I was in my last long-term relationship, but that was only during the day, kind of a “how’s your day going?” kind of thing. My kids will use it if they are running late coming home at night and they don’t want to freak me out with a phone call. My text notification tone is a lot less jarring than my phone ring tone.
I don’t even have a cellphone.
Can I text on a rotary-dial phone?
My 40-something year old brother seems to text alot. But he is in IT and is kind of a dork. I don’t think my other brother (late 30s) does it.
I don’t even really have a cell phone (40-something year old guy). I mostly prefer email.
32, american, male. Yes, I text, a few dozen times a month on average.
There are simply certain circumstances where one needs to communicate, and texting would be superior to both email and making a phone call. I don’t really understand why there are still people who think it’s just for girls and children.
Dio and I agree yet again. I am an IT project manager and developer so I know how these technologies work but I cannot understand the sociology at all.
Either you have something to say or you don’t. If you do, pick up the phone or send a coherent e-mail message. If you don’t, simply leave people alone. James Joyce made stream of consciousness crap seem cool yet it wasn’t and that was a long time ago. Can you believe there was actually a time not so long ago when people didn’t even have answering machines let all cell phones? Talk about over-communication.
I agree that it is for little girls and, if you disagree, that means you are a shrieking little girl even if you don’t know it.
Email is not really viable on anything like a reasonable time frame for a lot of people–I teach, and I can check my email maybe at lunch and again after 3. If I am trying to contact another teacher, I can’t even be sure that they will be able to check it that often, since many teachers don’t have computers in their room, or, if they do, they don’t have internet access. Calling is right out because you are, you know, teaching–even if I have a moment between classes, chances are the person I am texting is busy that exact moment and can’t answer the phone. So if we have questions for each other (“Want me to bring you lunch? I am going out” or “Does XYZ commitee meet right after school?”) or give each other the heads up (“Watch out for Johnny today. He’s testing every boundary” or “So and so is looking for you”), it’s efficient, discreet, and effective.
Would you mind losing email? Texting has many of the same advantages–it’s focused, on task, less personal–and can be used by the millions of people that don’t work in front of a computer. There are quite a lot of us, you know.
I would be thrilled if I got to lose e-mail once and for all but I am required to have it for work and I need the file attachments. I get close to 150 emails a day and about about 20 - 50 voice mails. I have actual work to do and this over communication stuff is driving me crazy. If I added on text messaging, I would literally only have time to communicate things and never do them. I can think of zero circumstances where someone would think it is a better idea to text message me instead of just calling so that I can see a caller ID. The vast majority of days, I shut down external communication at about 11 am because the input has already gotten overloaded and I have real work to do. There is no way I would open up another channel for that.
I still think that text messaging is childish or at least teenish. If anyone wants to communicate with me, it better consist of more than two sentences. I don’t understand why anyone needs to communicate with anyone else in short, meaningless, bursts. I guess I could almost understand it if you are waiting for someone who is late in a restaurant but that shouldn’t happen to anyone 30 times a month.
I’m a 21-year-old dude, and I text all the time. My male friends and I, especially, love it. It cuts out all the small talk and other social minutiae that most of us blokes aren’t good at and gets straight to the point.
Of course, it may be that I tend to ramble on and on and on, and men have a lot less tolerance for that than women. Now that I think about it, I ramble in text too–I type fast, I don’t use Interweb abbreviations (2u, ic, etc.) and I can easily send multiple 2-3 “page” text messages in a conversation. Probably drives my friends nuts, but I can usually get all 2 or 3 in before they can respond.
I’ve got my mom to text and even gotten my dad to start doing it a little bit (although he will actually call you to let you know he got your text message, which kind of kills the point–but then, he wears a Cruz Azul (Mexican soccer team) phone holster on his belt and has no idea).
Also true in college, BTW. Although some college girls complain that they can’t afford to use text messages. Varies by provider, I think: on Sprint, I get unlimited texting for an extra $15/mo.
Wow, thanks for threadshitting, Diogenes. And thanks for turning it into a full-on personal insult, Shagnasty.
Yes, but it takes a long time. 
Male, 29. The only person I text is my brother, for some reason we just like communicating that way better.
If your time is so precious, then shouldn’t you appreciate a form of communication where someone can send you a short message that you can digest without having to answer your phone or call your voicemail and that you don’t have to answer right away or possibly never? Maybe if some of those 20-50 vm’s were texts instead of voicemails it would save you some time. And if you are saying you prefer someone to call you just to show their caller ID (meaning you look at the phone to see who it is, but don’t answer it) – well guess what? That’s when a text is better than a call. Because someone wants to tell you something useful, and you see who it is but know they don’t expect you to answer the phone; maybe it’s just a “hey dickhead don’t forget that we changed the time this week.” Maybe it’s an address, and wow, it gets stored! You don’t have to remember it, or dial your vm, just open up your phone and look. And even if you get email on your phone, not everyone else does. So email is often out.
Sometimes you’re in a noisy bar or something when a phone call would be impossible, but it takes a few messages back and forth for you to find each other. So you might have to burn 2 or 3 messages. Still better than not being able to hear what the other person is saying on the phone. There’s nothing more frustrating.
The guys I hang out with at work and at church, I’ve never seen them make a text message. Never heard any of them talk about it in any way. Personally, I’ve never done a text message.
I assumed it was a girl thing and a teen thing.
Thanks, I thought I was the only one who got that vibe.
How is that threadshitting? Is it because of the indelicate choice of words? They were more or less agreeing with the OP.
No problem. It wasn’t an insult to anyone. It is just an immutable fact of the universe. Anytime you can get me and Diogenes to fully agree on something, you have found your real and ultimate answer.
I text pictures of stuff all the time, but that’s just because I like to share weird shit that I come across. Other than that it is nice for bars since you don’t have to hear anything and **Pravnik’s ** previously mentioned long distance shit talking.
Yeah, I second (or third) the fact that texting communicates something short and easily answerable better than a phone call. Also the fact that it is more discreet. Why would you want to have a phone call that includes pleasantries (unless you’re good friends) when they can be cut out.
“Hello?”
“Hi Jim, it’s BillyBoBobBrain.”
“Oh hey, what’s up?”
“Just wanted to see if you wanted to grab lunch at Arby’s during break.”
“Oh, I can’t-- I have to run to the bank.”
“Alright-- catch you some other time then.”
Or if you’re close enough to dispense with pleasantries:
(checks caller ID) “Hey BBBB, what’s up?”
“Wanna grab lunch at Arby’s?”
“Nah, gotta run to the bank.”
“K, catch you later.”
“See ya.”
Now granted, neither one of those conversations took much time, but rather than look at how long it takes, think of how the question can be asked and answered at each person’s convenience. If I’m still on the clock, I have to decide whether I’m able to talk to BillyBrain right then, and if not call him back when he may or may not be available. Instead I can just get a text: “wanna grab lunch at Arby’s?” and then when I’m able, write back “sorry, gotta run to bank.” This is especially true if you need the discreetness factor, like if I super doesn’t allow personal phone calls or some such.
Now, I can certainly type faster than I text (even with T9 mode), but for short messages like the one I described, it would definitely take longer to log in to email, open the message than typing those 5 words would.
Eh, dunno, seems like the people opposed to it are either still stereotyping it as communication that takes awhile to get out and includes graphics of bouncing smiley faces.
OMG, Timmy is sooooo cute!!! I cant believ hes in the same class as me. i could have just DIED when he brushed past my hadn 
X-D!!!
I don’t understand how you can say that it’s not more convenient in some cases when it most clearly is. Especially over voice mail that has short issues. I’d much rather get a text from a friend that says “Hey, I’ve gotta move some shit, wonder if you could swing by after work and help me for an hour” than a voice mail saying the exact same thing (from a close friend, obviously, who doesn’t need to go through the “I’ve got a favor, wonder if you can do blah, I’ll buy you pizza, etc.” where the person’s voice would make your social niceities more easily understood).
And yeah, minutes are damn expensive in Japan. EVERYONE texts. I even discovered last night that my phone has T9 mode in English, and did a little happy dance. It involved pie.
ETA: Oh, I’m a dude in my mid 20s, and I’ve been texting ever since I got a cell a few years ago.
OneCentStamp and Shagnasty, I can’t respond to your posts in any meaningful way outside of the Pit, and I don’t care enough to start a Pit thread. Suffice it to say, Shagnasty, that I’m glad I don’t have to live in your world.