Shall I tell you what I had in mind? It may sound radical to you. Are you ready?
Wait a small number of seconds till you can safely put the baby down.
I don’t have a smartphone, just a prepaid that to do text you have to use the number key pad (slooow). So other than truly short messages I usually send a saved message that just says “call whenever convenient”.
Not only this, but apps like “What’s App” make it very convenient to have group discussions all in one place. For example, my music group meets on Wednesday nights if by noon Wednesday enough people want to come. Usually I send a What’s App message to the group asking for RSVP’s, and a list gets started. Everyone adds their name to the list and voila, we all know, pretty much in real time, what’s happening.
Another issue which may not much matter in richer countries but which is definitely important to Indonesians is that texting is much cheaper than calling. (And What’s App is free.) For people on a budget, it makes a big difference.
And yet another advantage of texting over calling … people frequently complain about having to listen to others talking away on their cell phones. Well, texting is quiet.
Are you a parent? Did you ever multi-task? Have a glass of water while holding the baby, or maybe take a phone call or stir the pasta?
Texting is not hazardous to anyone’s health unless they’re doing while driving (don’t do that) or texting and walking without paying attention. You’re being silly.
Is it really unsafe to hold a baby with one arm? I’ve seen people do it all the time. Not just to use smartphone, just so they have one arm free to do other stuff. I’ve also seen lots of dads carry their baby like a football, nobody ever seem to make a fuss about it.
If she was carrying a baby in one arm and carrying a grocery bag/purse in the other, would you even have noticed?
Texting has brought my wife and I closer. I am very busy and have a 1.25 hour (each way) commute every day, standard business week. She has a job that works weekends.
I go to bed around 11 or 12, she stays up to 1 or 2 weekdays.
I get up at 6, out the door by 7. I work until about 4 or 5 and then drive home. On days when I teach (usually 2-4 days a week- two semesters a year) I go to the University until about 9 and I am home by 9:30. Eat dinner, kiss wife, play some EVE online or something, go to bed.
Weekends are better, but since museums are open on weekends, that is when she works. So I sleep in a little, get up, we see each other for an hour or so before she goes to the museum and then I do my thing until she comes home.
We did this life for 10 years. Mostly happy, but I always wanted to spend more time with her. She is after all, my best friend.
Then, just 3 years ago, we decided to get cell phones. Yes, besides my work phone, we did not have a cell phone. We were kinda like you, “why this craze. this is silly. look at those silly young people and their texting.” Nothing ever mean, just a “meh, we don’t need it”.
Now, instead of the 1-2 “check in” calls a day, we share tiny snippets of our day with each other. She sends me a pic when she sees something funny, or when she has a thought. I send her a frustration I am dealing with and she talks me down from the ledge.
This is done in 10-15 word texts, taking just seconds. Not pulling me out of my work in any way and not hurting productivity. I mean, as I walk from one meeting to the next, i am just looking down at my cell and sending a “lol” response to the pic my wife sent of our dog nuzzling a stuffed fish we bought him. Or, I am seeing her supportive statement of “don’t let them get you down, you know your better than that” in response to my quick text an hour ago saying “these people are driving me nuts, they want me to …”.
So, to answer your question. I am texting about my life and sharing it with my wife in tiny little snippets. I am calling her on the phone when I am driving and laughing at the texts she sent me earlier, or the meme photographs she or I send each other. “Hey honey, we got a call from that dude who wants us to sponsor his (insert crazy political position) again”. Response “(Picture of grumpy cat with “NO”)”. A quick LOL and a simple warm interaction with the woman I love.
Let it go dude, humans communicating is fun, and caring, and enriching and loving. If they do it while they should be working, driving, or other things? well then you got a beef.
Carrying a child? Maybe, I don’t know, would have to know the whole context. Did you ever answer the house phone (land line) carrying a child, or place dishes on the table or some other task? I know I did. I would have to know the full context to be concerned.
But, to answer your fundamental question of why people text… Maybe it is because they have people they love and they just want to spend every tiny second they have, in between the chaos of their busy lives, with them.
Crazy stuff, I know.
Texting while holding a baby is not a big deal. Texting while holding a baby while walking through a parking lot (like in the OP) is. Get to a safe place, get into the store, stop, and then text. You may think you are paying attention to what is around you. You aren’t.
And I’m the guy behind you fantasizing about sticking your phone where the sun don’t shine because you are busy texting even when the light turns green.
It is illegal to text while driving (and sitting at a light counts as driving) in California, and I’m glad. Not that people don’t do it. Oh they think they are so aware. but I can tell when they leave a godawful amount of space ahead of them when traffic is moving at 5 mph and are clearly out of it.
With hands free phones you are least looking in front of you. Not that it is a good idea either. You and Lucky Mike are a danger to yourself and others, and should just stop it.
If you text while walking you are more likely to hurt yourself than anyone else, so go right ahead.
Holy crap. I had no idea. Texting while operating machinery is bull moose stupid. And when they lose a thumb or arm they’d probably sue your employer for not making them stop.
I’ll go in with you on the rehab center. Great idea. If we can convince the courts to send driving texters to us (like traffic school) we’d make a fortune.
An example: I’m at work. I work for a library and I’m staffing a public desk right now. It’s a very quiet Friday night. My kid is spending the night at a friend’s house (Yay!). So instead of calling her from work and disturbing the few patrons who are here, I texted - “Did you get your chores done? Be ready to hop in the car when I get home…” Immediate response: “Yes. K.”
Texting is so much more convenient at times.
I get the house to myself tonight!!
What are you talking about dude? i never once said I texted while driving.
I will use the bluetooth hands free for conversations (voice activated dialing), but I have no idea where you got from that to “I was texting while driving”.
Furthermore, I also carpool many times and I am not always driving.
Oh, and you should probably work on those fantasies of violence man, not healthy. Your desire to stick things up rectums is likely related to some other issues too so seek out counseling there as well.
It would have to be an infant. Bigger babies reach for the phone. My son and his wife keep having to stash their phones up on shelves because their toddler daughter is fascinated by them.
No, I do not keep texting when the light turns green, thank you very much. As I said, it’s three or four times a year at most when it’s important. Yep, it’s a illegal. So is speeding, and I do that, too sometimes. I admit it - I routinely set the cruise control at 60 mph on the way work on a highway that has a 55 mph limit.
You know what, I am sorry for that last statement. I apologize to the individual poster. I got upset about the fact he said I was a danger to others for simply texting my wife, making the false assumption I did it while driving.
Regardless, it was not acceptable to make the statements about his violent fantasies. That was immature and sophomoric and I apologize sincerely.
Texting is easier from a cellphone than a conference call, and with conference calls, all the participants have to be on the phone at the same time. I can carry on a group text conversation with a dozen other people at once. And if half of them are too busy at that moment, they can catch up on everything they missed by reading the previous texts, then join in at their convenience.
I’m pretty sure that baby in her hands is going to be fine. If her other hand was free doing something else, or carrying another grocery bag, you would not even have noticed. Where is the thread titled “OMG! She had her baby in one hand and a grocery bag in the other!! Why was that grocery bag so important?? She should have both hands on her baby at all times!?” You seem to have a crazy issue with texting.
It’s really over the top in Thailand. Possibly, quite possibly, I could not walk naked across the city and not be noticed, but if I did escape everyone’s attention, it’s because they all have their damned faces glued to their damned phones 24/7.
Usually I’m communicating with upper managers whom I can’t hear over my radio. Or answering questions from my associates who need customers’ questions answered. (I know the location of virtually every product we carry, and we’re a 200,000 square foot supercenter. Most associates are knowledgable about their areas only.
Or lately, it’s responding to texts and certain pics from a nice young lady.
I am a young(ish) fogey, but I am working a lot more on mindfulness and awareness. I have found that, in general, the practice of ALWAYS looking at a small screen in my hand (which I think many people out in public do) instead of paying attention to my surroundings creates a bit of a mental fog. And there are numerous studies now that show that multitasking (which texting while walking is) may make people less efficient overall.
So I know for my own mental health’s sake, I feel much clearer and sharper when I try to do one thing at a time. I’ve stopped listening to music when I walk the dog, for example, and now if I’m walking and think of something I need to text, I’m as likely to walk to my destination, stop for three seconds and send a text, and then go on to do the next thing.
Re the OP, I actually agree that walking across a busy parking lot and looking at a screen can be semi-dangerous. If anyone of us were to do that and hear a loud honk indicating that we walked behind a car that was in the process of pulling out of a parking spot, for example, we would immediately stop whatever else we’re doing and look up, startled. I think in that second we often have slightly less control over our “peripherals.” If that peripheral is a phone or grocery bag that slides out of our hand for a second, nbd. If it’s a baby that’s another issue. It’s a small risk but it’s there, and the cost/benefit analysis may work out in favor of not taking that risk.
Although I actually thought from the OP that the woman was using both hands to text, and had the baby squeezed between her arm and side while doing that, which I guess wasn’t the case.
I don’t know what percentage the article implies, but here on the Dope, over 20% of people responding to my poll saidthey have Weinered before.
The woman who hit me while backing out of her grocery store parking space was texting about the price of oranges.
Really. If you can’t wait five minutes for that type of text, you have a major problem.