I have a friend who is much harder to reach via text than email. He and I are both retired. He might check his phone texts every day or two but he’s right on top of emails. He is practically the only person I know who communicates his personal exchanges via email. How many folks use texting for communicating with friends vs. email? I consider email to be largely a tool for business, longer subjects and attaching things etc.
I’m 75. You are much more likely to reach me in a timely way via text than via emailing.
Most communication is simple enough for texting. I prefer email for anything that doesn’t need a quick response though.
If you text me, I’ll probably notice within a month or so, probably when I click the speech bubble to text someone myself.
Email me and I’ll receive it within hours if not instantaneously.
Do people who don’t see their texts have some kind of setting where they don’t display on the screen or something? If get a text it’s literally right in the middle of the screen when I pick up my phone.
I am 67 and primarily text with most people. I have one cousin who does not do texting or email and requires an actual phone call.
There are a few occasions when I need to use email for personal contact but not many.
At work it’s mostly email with frequent texting and occasional phone calls.
I don’t have a smartphone, and my old-school flip-phone has no data plan – just phone. Not even sure it has voicemail.
I have visual challenges, so the small form factor stuff just isn’t my friend.
Email’s my game – laptop and magnification.
I have a land line that I have had for decades. If you want to reach me, call that number.
I also have a cell phone, but when I am at home, it’s usually sitting on a charger and there’s a good chance I’m not in the same room as the phone. If you call my cell phone, there’s a good chance I won’t hear it ring. If you send me a text, it might be a few days before I notice it.
I always have my email up in the background on my computer. Send me an email and I’ll probably see it fairly quickly. That said, while a few relatives I have send me emails instead of sending letters through the mail, most of my friends and relatives do not use email to contact me. They just call me on the telephone.
We use Microsoft Teams at work. My friends from work occasionally send me non-work messages on Teams.
My family and friends also communicate a lot on Facebook Messenger.
I’m 40 and prefer email over text, but I don’t often get my way because everyone else seems to prefer texting 
I end up using Google Messages for Web so I can at least type in response instead of having to fat-thumb messages back.
For chatting with family, though, we use Discord and Line instead. They’re basically AIM for cool kids or something.
I miss the simplicity of ICQ and the interoperability of Trillian, when everyone used to be able to talk to everyone else regardless of network/app, but then the big tech companies got greedy and locked down all of their messaging systems
The European Union, thankfully, is having some luck forcing Apple to adopt some of the more recent texting standards, so hopefully that will get better over time (for Apple-Android group chats, images, videos, etc.).
My phone has a small dot that appears next to the Messages icon when I receive a text. I also get an audible ding, but if I’m not paying attention, or I’m wearing a heavy coat or out of the room I may not here the ding.
As for texting in general, I prefer email unless it’s something urgent. I don’t handle a touch screen keyboard very well and do most of my social communication on a full size keyboard.
I’m also 75. I am a slow texter, and so I don’t like texting for anything more complex than meeting up or making simple plans to meet up. There are lots of other communications that I really prefer via email.
You’ll get me about as fast on either method. I don’t carry my phone with me around the house, so unless I hear the phone’s alert I won’t know whether I have any messages nor what kind until the next time I sit down at my desk. Which I do far too much.
I hate texting. I do not have a smartphone and will hold out as long as I can against getting one: do not like touchscreens.
And of course texting on a non-smart phone where you have to press a button three or four times to get one letter is a major pain in the khyber.
Email is the only civilized form of communication.
And how often do you pick up your phone? I suspect part of the email vs. texting divide has to do with how often people look at their phones vs. how often they look at their computers.
My brother refuses to communicate via text with anyone who is not paying him. He says the expected immediacy of text responses is not warranted, so his solution is to ignore all texts except from his bosses and customers.
He doesn’t respond later. He will not respond at all. Or apparently even read the texts.
He did not respond at all when my father was taken to the hospital in an ambulance after collapsing at home.
He didn’t respond when my sister’s father in law died suddenly. This is someone he knew quite well.
My brother is in his early 50s but he’s been doing this for over ten years, pretty much when texting was replacing email for messaging.
It depends on the subject. I’ll use text if it’s something quick. like what time I’m picking you up tomorrow. The last email I sent to family/friends was about a weekend trip which included details about the dates, where we are staying (including phone and address) , what’s included , the deadline to make reservations and the prices ( one for adults and three separate prices for children depending on age. No way am I trying to put all that in a text.
I might, however, see an email before I see a text - I don’t walk around my house with my phone and it’s entirely possible that I’m on the computer downstairs and left my phone upstairs.
This.
I have a semi-smart flip phone. Typing anything on it is a bear. Also the screen is minuscule and my eyes are bad. Email me; I love email. The people emailing each other don’t have to be ready to deal with the conversation at the same time, and you get a written record to refer to, and can think about what you’re saying before you hit send. Some of that also applies to texting, but not to phone calls. There are a couple of people and/or subjects I prefer a phone call for, but generally I love email.
If his family knew he didn’t respond to texts – and if they rely on texting how could they not know? – why on earth didn’t they get ahold of him some other way?
– My phone’s usually in my pocket, but it’s on vibrate, because I don’t want it yelling at me. I might or might not notice the quick buzz of a text; and if I don’t, I won’t see the notification until I open the phone. Which will probably be within the next 24 hours, but might not be much sooner. I won’t see emails until I look at the computer, and only at intervals then; but I generally check email more often than I look at the phone.
Please do not text me. Yes, I will see your text within about 24 hours, but to reply, I would need to click-click for the letter H, then click-click-click for the letter I, then click once for M, then again on a different key for G, and so on. If you email me between 1:00 PM and 1:00 AM and I am interested in replying to your message, it will be within about ten minutes and it might be a long reply. I am 69 years old and I do know how to text, but I can type a heck of a lot faster than I can tap out a message on my not-a-smartphone. Better yet, call me on my landline! We can have a conversation in real time!
Some of us are not glued to a smartphone!
In Japan and Taiwan people use LINE app, which allows texting and calls. I don’t have a landline anymore so I always have my cell phone where I can hear it.
My wife, kids, friends, etc all communicate via LINE. There’s one teacher who insists on using email for everything.
He pulls this shit in every aspect of life and our mother was not in any state of mind to deal with it in that moment?
I can guarantee that if at 11pm on a Saturday night, one of his consulting clients texted him at the same number he would have gotten back to them within ten minutes. But his mother has to send him an email to stroke his ego when her husband of 55 years is in an ambulance on the way to the ER and then ICU?
He’s an information security consultant for Christ’s sake. It’s a power trip. Unless you’re paying him he’s not obligated to read your message until he’s good and ready and it’s sent in his preferred format. He’s had a smartphone for as long as he hasn’t had a BlackBerry. He’s not using a flip phone. He’d lose all credibility with his clients and employer.
Guess who was all indignant and pissed off that he “wasn’t notified”? Hint: it wasn’t his parents and siblings. He wasn’t going to do anything to help. For the rest of us it’s just human decency to want to know what’s happening with your ailing father.
It’s not like we are texting him funny cat videos all day. We know not to include him on anything except the most important things.