Those Of You Who Call, Text and E-Mail All The Time..What Are You Saying?

I’m with Shagnasty. If it was me, I’d call once from the hotel to say, “Hey, I’m in town, at the hotel, what’s the plan for this evening (or tomorrow, or whenever)?”. Just because the technology exists where I can share every minute detail of my life with 100 people, I don’t really need to. Or want to. I’m a bit biased, as I’ve never seen the need for a cell phone yet and have never sent a text message. Goes for the receiving end as well. I don’t need to know the minute details of anybody else’s life, regardless of how badly they might need to share them with me.

While I am as extroverted as they come, the appeal of constant communication escapes me. I have a cell phone in the car for emergencies. That’s it. No one’s life is that interesting that it must be reported on in a constant stream.

Texting for me is easier than getting caught up in pointless conversation. I never did see the value in calling someone for a 30 second talk about where we are meeting or what time the movie is. I also find it to be, generally, less disruptive to what I am doing. As far as minutes go, I use my phone to talk to my dad and my siblings. Being away at school means that we do not get to talk as much as I was used to growing up so it is a nice way to keep in touch. Of course, those minutes are all free so my bill is not even close to ridiculous.

When I’m on the streetcar or subway near someone who’s talking on their phone, it generally sounds like this:

“Yeah, I’m on the streetcar.”
“Oh, yeah, maybe five minutes.”
“Sure is hot, isn’t it?”
“Well, of course.”
“Chicken for dinner again?”
“Oh, okay, yeah.”
“Well, I can pick some up if you like.”
“Okay. Oh, here’s my stop. See you in two minutes.”
Either that or it’s an intensively personal conversation which I don’t feel comfortable overhearing. The general run of conversation sounds like the things you’d say to each other in the car on the way somewhere, or fill-in small talk. I don’t get paying for that.

I generally figure with the real continuous blabbers it’s some kind of terror at the idea that you might be, for one minute, out of contact, and therefore cease to exist. A kind of death anxiety, or existential crisis.

I’m 28, so I didn’t grow up with everyone having cell phones. The idea of always, always being available to talk makes me cranky and claustrophobic, and watching groups of kids out together, totally ignoring each other and texting furiously, makes me sad in a grumpy codger way. You’re with people! Why don’t you talk to the ones you’re with?

I sound like I’m eighty, sorry.

My 15 yo neice is like this. She visited us not to long ago.

While on a ski lift with my Wife she got this urgent message - “Anne Nichole Smith has died” from a friend. :rolleyes:

Also, just walking around, or in a store she would text people on the go. Probably telling her friends what a fuddy-duddy her uncle is.

For some conversations, the content is immaterial. It’s a group bonding exercise, like chimps picking lice out of each others fur or dogs sniffing each others butts.

My son calls when he gets home from grocery shopping so that everyone can come out and help unload. That part’s handy. But it’s short.

Many of them aren’t paying for that. I might have an inane conversation or two on my cell phone, but I still come in well under my plan minutes, and I have a phone for more important things. So there’s no additional cost to me to have stupid conversations. I’m guessing that it’s like that for a lot of people.

I’ve wondered this too, as I have a co-worker who tells me that she texts over 3500 times a month. That’s over 100 messages a day! I’ve sent a few messages, sure, but if I sent that many, my thumbs would fall off! I don’t even know how she has time to send so many, since she works the same 8 hour day that I do and has three small kids.

She tells me that she uses the cell so much because she doesn’t have a landline, and she texts so much because she doesn’t want to go over her minutes. I do have a landline, but I hardly use it anymore…the only reason I keep it is because my daughter’s friends call her on it, and I’m not ready to give a 10-year-old a cell phone. My husband and I are never even close to going over our minutes on the smallest “family plan” available–that’s because we usually only call each other, and that’s always free.

I think you might be on to something, featherlou. I was born in 1975, at the tail end of Generation X, and I’m one of the few younger employees at my office who doesn’t have a cell phone at my ear for several hours a day (I keep a Tracfone in my purse for emergencies. The last time I checked, I had about 450 minutes remaining). I may be the oddball in the group, but I don’t like being accessible all the time.

I work with a bunch of people just like her. They’re constantly on their phones, texting like mad. It’s just non-stop.
I just can’t imagine having that much to say to people all the freaking time.

I could think of plenty to say if I wanted to be on the phone for 1500 minutes a month, or to send 100 text messages a day. Hell, there’s usually something rattling around in my brain, and I could just as easily say it as think it.

But the thing is, for the life of me, I can’t imagine to whom I would say it. Nobody wants to be bothered by me that often–not my friends, not my co-workers, not my brother, nor my parents. I couldn’t pay somebody to listen to me for that many minutes.

Count me among those who don’t get it.

I know personally I use alot of minutes on my cell phone because, well, I’m lonely. All my non-coworker friends are at least 100 miles away, making visiting not an option. Really my only method of communication with all my friends is through my cell phone.
When I leave work I think “Well, 16 more hours alone until I come back and can talk to people in person again”. Joining clubs in the area isn’t an option with my constantly changing work schedule.

So, I use my phone alot.

What’s not to get? My generation (I’m 28) and those younger than me grew up more or less “online” in an environment that relies heavily on Instant Messengers, Chatrooms, and message boards to share information on a pretty constant basis. The only downfall to this wonderful internet phenomenon was that you couldn’t really leave your computer without “logging off” and now we’ve essentially solved that problem.

I text my friends about the same stuff I used to IM them about. My boss IM’s me during the day to chat about work, my kid IM’s me to chat about what the cats are up to while he’s home for the summer and I sometimes log into AOL Instant Messenger from my phone as I’m leaving work if I’m in the middle of an IM conversation and don’t want to end it abruptly just because I’m walking out the door.

I like communicating with those closest to me that I wouldn’t otherwise get to chat with on an every day basis because we’re generally busy with this and that. I send a message, they respond back when they get a minute or two. I’ve cracked 3k texts in a month, but usually ride right around the 1500 mark. I’d say the majority of these texts involve me having a casual conversation with one of 5 friends while watching tv, riding in the car, waiting at the DMV, etc.

I did watch my best friend crack 10,000 texts in a month once. I have no idea how her thumbs didn’t fall off. I also don’t know who she was texting, but since she’d recently undergone a breakup, I’d say everyone. :eek:

I phone rarely. I text a bit- about 50 a month. I tend to email a lot.

An interesting pont. Shagnasty asks the question about the need to commincate so frequently- I note his post count exceeds 10,000 (assuming Shagnasty is a he). I would have thought that was a communication medium.

Part of it is generational. I think about my father, who would have been 81 this coming weekend. Many years ago, someone in the family gave him an answering machine. He never used it. It was hooked up with some kind of message (don’t know who recorded it), but it was not a concept that he could relate to. He was quite a tinkerer, so it wasn’t the technology—it was the use of it. For a lot of his generation, I think the mentality was “If someone needs to get in touch with me and I’m not home, they’ll call back when I am home.” End of subject.

Adjust the technology up a generation and you have us.

I really don’t think it’s a generational thing. I’m younger than you and I can’t get my head around it. I don’t see the point of computeresque phones when you can just use a computer.

I can understand people constantly cellphoning or texting inane stuff…different strokes and all, but here’s a behavior I’ve observed that I don’t understand at all:

Quite often, I’ll see someone (usually a young woman) with a cellphone to their ear, not talking, not texting, not punching buttons at all. They’ll be walking down the street/through Metro stations, etc. and have the cellphone to their ear the whole time (I’ve actually observed people for several minutes) and never speak or push a button.

What are they doing? Are they on hold?, Are they talking to someone extremely long-winded? Are they calling into a meeting? Listening to a lecture?

Maybe, but I don’t think these things cover the frequency at which I see this behavior occurring.

I can’t fathom why you’d have the phone to your ear for several minutes without talking or pushing a button or anything…is it some kind of defense mechanism? :confused:

Handier than just bringing in the first bag or two and telling the people he’s now seeing face-to-face to help with the groceries?

I don’t understand the need to broadcast a constant stream of conciousness either. I don’t need or want to know where somebody is and what they are doing every moment of every day.

There’s been a few times I’ve done this.
Before the curfew was implemented, we had teenage guys roaming around my complex, offering to ‘help’ with bags, or just standing around watching you. I’ve taken out my phone and faked a call because that way I can say No and not have it go any further.
I’ve pretended to listen to a message while walking in a construction area because the workers stop and stare at any female walking alone. Whe catcalls and ‘suggestions’ start, it’s easier to ignore when you look busy.
A passive way to deal with those situations, I know, but what’s the alternative?

WAG: Some cell phones double as MP3 players. Perhaps they’re listening to music?

I could imagine doing this if I was trying to get my account balance from my bank - there’s a lot of waiting for the automated system to just get to the freaking point already - it would be faster if I could remember my main account number off the top of my head, but my memory is already tied up with my customer number, customer access number, credit card number, pin number… so instead I have to listen to a lot of irrelevant information about my “savings” account that I don’t use but the bank threw in for free when I opened the other account before it gets around to telling me what’s in the account I actually use -sigh-