# We Are Too Danged Old For This Silly Text Messaging **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 29, 2006, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720 "2006-04-29T07:04:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Klaatu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Klaatu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klaatu)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/1 "2006-04-29T07:04:29Z")
Not a Pitworthy rant, I am just bemused by this. My friends and I are all basically in our forties/fifties, some younger some older, but we are grownups. So when the kids got into this texting thing a few years ago we just watched with amusement as their little fingers blasted through the phone keys, saying things like “Aww, that’s so cute”, and “Hell, I can’t hardly see the dang screen”. But dammit, now I have people my own age texting me. Now I don’t want to generalize or sound sexist, but 100% of the people who text me are females. Yes, ladies, I am looking at you. 🙂 None of my guy friends has ever txted me, but at least five female friends do all the time. And these ladies are all in their forties. It has replaced talking on the phone. Example: Wnt to mt fr a drnk aftr wk? Well sure sweetheart, you could of just called. I admit, I have got with the program and learned to txt back, and usually it’s not gibberish. (learning the little tricks) but it has led me to a conclusion about this phenomenon. I don’t think this just about women either, but texting seems to be a way to say what you want without having to engage the other person or hear possibly differing thoughts. That’s cool. Have your say and be done with it. No immediate feedback required. Still, it’s kinda strange to me. Your thoughts? Or hell, wnt to mt fr a drnk? ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/2 "2006-04-29T07:13:51Z")
I rarely text-message mainly because I never got the hang of reductio-language, so I spell everything out, properly (except I can’t find the key for capitalisations, bugger). And thus, because it takes so damn long, it’s easier for me to call someone and actually TALK to them. And anybody texting ME would want to have a bloody good reason, like an emergency or something…although quick ‘love you’s’ via text are always appreciated, of course! 😛 Oh, I’m old too. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/3 "2006-04-29T07:17:23Z")
I’m about 75% with you on this rant. For the 75% that I am, I’d say that not only is most texting silly, but I’ll take it further and say the entire mobile phone culture is silly. Don’t get me wrong, the phones are wonderful tools, but when I see kids on the train comparing phones and ringtones, and when I see specialist magazines devoted to the mobile phone subculture (heck, somebody must be buying them), I stop and think that these phones are great, but they’re an _appliance_ ferchrissakes! There is no culture developed around landline phones, or microwave ovens, or toasters. Why phones? Strikes me as pretty dumb. They’re a useful tool but no more. For the 25% I’m not with you, I text sometimes, and friends and relatives do. Sometimes I need to contact somebody who might be asleep, or have a sleeping baby, or might be working, etc. And most importantly of all, sometimes you just don’t want to talk to somebody. So yeah, I do it sometimes, but I reckon the vast majority of text messages sent are a waste of electrons. The other thing is, that I imsist on using complete words, and proper grammar and punctuation, so often simply calling the person is easier. thx kewl lol ---
**Author:** ![Klaatu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Klaatu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klaatu)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/4 "2006-04-29T07:19:02Z")
Heh, apparently there is a magic key on the phone that does all the punctuation and such. I’d ask the damn kids but they aren’t answering their messages. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/5 "2006-04-29T08:33:49Z")
> [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > I stop and think that these phones are great, but they’re an _appliance_ ferchrissakes! There is no culture developed around landline phones, or microwave ovens, or toasters. Now I’ve got this image in my head for _Toaster Bi-Monthly_ with a hot lady hawking a toaster on the cover and tag-lines reading “7 Signs Your Toaster May be Cheating on You” and “To Toast or Not To Toast: Christina Aguilera Reveals True Feelings in this Exclusive Interview” ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/6 "2006-04-29T08:38:18Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Now I’ve got this image in my head for _Toaster Bi-Monthly_ with a hot lady hawking a toaster on the cover and tag-lines reading “7 Signs Your Toaster May be Cheating on You” and “To Toast or Not To Toast: Christina Aguilera Reveals True Feelings in this Exclusive Interview” I remember a comedy sketch show doing this - I think it was _Not the Nine O’clock News_. They had a magazine rack with titles like “Gargling World” and “Which Anorak?” There used to be a little shop on one of Sydney’s main arterial roads that sold nothing but mailboxes: _LETTERBOX WORLD_. ---
**Author:** ![Bernard\_Marx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@Bernard\_Marx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bernard_Marx)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/7 "2006-04-29T08:43:40Z")
> [@Klaatu](#): > > I don’t think this just about women either, but texting seems to be a way to say what you want without having to engage the other person or hear possibly differing thoughts. That’s cool. Have your say and be done with it. No immediate feedback required. This is exactly why I like text messaging. I text people rather than ring them so that, if they are busy, they can reply when it’s convenient. If I phone them, they pretty much have to talk to me then. (They can ask me to call back, but its still an inconvenience for me and them.) It also means that I can ask them if they want to go for a drink later without any extraneous “conversation.” (You could do this if you rang them up, too, but to me it would feel rather rude and abrupt). ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/8 "2006-04-29T10:33:40Z")
I too am of the spell out everything school so it’s lucky that my phone has predictive text or I would be even slower. I like to point out to people the irony of how far the phone came in 100 years - now we don’t need phone lines and we can use trhem to send telegraph messages. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/9 "2006-04-29T13:13:32Z")
I text Mr. S at work frequently, to send him some piece of news or ask him to call me on his break, because I know that he’s sometimes to busy to answer the phone (he works as a school custodian). (And yes, I use proper spelling/grammar and abbreviate only when necessary. I can see the convenience of sending a message without having to make a voice call. But doing it “just for fun” does seem silly. And I agree with the overblown aspect of all the bells and whistles. > [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > There is no culture developed around landline phones, or microwave ovens, or toasters. We have a P.S. Mueller cartoon posted in our kitchen: Two guys standing over a toaster. Guy 1: Wanna see what she does with whole wheat? Guy 2: Sure! ---
**Author:** ![squeekster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/779978/32.png) [@squeekster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeekster)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/10 "2006-04-29T13:53:44Z")
About the only time I ever text message anyone is when I want to get ahold of my son. But I cheat. I go to my carriers website online and type the message in a box on the screen and click “send”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/11 "2006-04-29T13:55:36Z")
> [@](#): > > wnt to mt fr a drnk? Sure, I’d love to mount Frank Drake! \ ---
**Author:** ![Cowgirl\_Jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/12 "2006-04-29T14:37:31Z")
I pretty much use it exclusively to discreetly talk dirty to whomever I’m dating. And yes, proper grammar is important when you’re talking dirty. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/13 "2006-04-29T14:53:50Z")
The only time I sent a text message was to a friend when I was trapped at my in-laws for a week. \*AAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!" just seemed to say it better than any conversation I could have had around prying ears. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/14 "2006-04-29T16:11:00Z")
My husband (an old guy) and I text a little bit. I especially like it for getting/giving confirmation that a plane has arrived on time. The one who is not traveling could easily be in a meeting and not really want to get a call, and the one who is traveling actually doesn’t want to be one of those annoying folks (“I love you, too, bunnykins”) carrying on in the airport. ---
**Author:** ![Frosted\_Glass](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frosted_glass/32/3926_2.png) [@Frosted\_Glass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frosted_Glass)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/15 "2006-04-29T16:16:34Z")
> [@squeekster](#): > > About the only time I ever text message anyone is when I want to get ahold of my son. But I cheat. I go to my carriers website online and type the message in a box on the screen and click “send”. 😃 I was shocked and amazed the first time that my mother sent me a text message. I mean, this woman barely knows how to work her hotmail account and she is sending me text messages?! Still, I must admit that I am impressed. ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/16 "2006-04-29T17:38:16Z")
> [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > I stop and think that these phones are great, but they’re an _appliance_ ferchrissakes! There is no culture developed around landline phones, or microwave ovens, or toasters. Why phones? Strikes me as pretty dumb. They’re a useful tool but no more. There is the cult of [Magic Fridge](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8248766101102341416). YMMV IANAFW L8R ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/17 "2006-04-29T17:40:24Z")
> [@squeekster](#): > > About the only time I ever text message anyone is when I want to get ahold of my son. But I cheat. I go to my carriers website online and type the message in a box on the screen and click “send”. Also many you can email directly. Verizon uses the ending @vtext.com to the phone number: [8005551212@vtext.com](mailto:8005551212@vtext.com) Other carriors have different endings. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/18 "2006-04-29T18:19:00Z")
> [@Bernard Marx](#): > > This is exactly why I like text messaging. I text people rather than ring them so that, if they are busy, they can reply when it’s convenient. If I phone them, they pretty much have to talk to me then. So it’s email for people without email? ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/19 "2006-04-29T19:16:10Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > So it’s email for people without email? Or, indeed, e-mail for people who might be miles away from the computer. AND it lets me relay one piece of infomation without the risk of a long boring and expensive chat (thinking of my brother here). I promise I never use the odd teenage abbrevations, though, so it that all right? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720/20 "2006-04-29T20:42:49Z")
People I work are usually reachable by: 1. A work phone 2. Work voice mail 3. A cell phone 4. Cell phone voice mail 5. Text messaging 6. E-mail - corporate 7. E-mail - personal 8. Gmail 9. Instant messaging 10. Sometimes a pager I am so much better than that. I usually leave my cell phone in the car. As soon as web trackable personal body embedded GPS systems take off, we can finally say that we are all connected. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-too-danged-old-for-this-silly-text-messaging/354720.md?page=2)