Remember, too, that many people work in situations where they do not have ready access to email: I think in some way hard-core techies were/are resistant to texting because they and everyone they know is at the computer all day, and might as well email. For people who are not, texting serves that purpose.
Not being one who texts, but teaching in college where everyone texts, I finally got an answer that made 100% perfect sense from one of my students:
“You have a chance to think before you answer - if someone asks on the phone if you want to go out to a bar tonight, you have to answer fairly quickly. But if they text you, can think it over - if you don’t want to go out at all, or you don’t want to go to a bar, or if you just don’t want to go out with them.”
Ooh, good one, DMark. I used to prefer, when on call for emergencies, to get a page over a phone call for the same reason: two minutes to think is nice.
I’m not huge text-er, but it is great for sending a grocery list to someone at the store, where he probably doesn’t have a pen and notepad. Our texts are thrilling:
bread
white milk
sandwich meat
baby carrots
tea
bagels
…yep, it’s a wild ride at Chez Savannah.
This is the main thing for me. A text is usually seen immediately (unlike email), wherever the person might be (unlike IM) yet doesn’t demand an immediate response if the person is busy or wants to think (unlike a phone call). IMHO it’s the best of both worlds for many messages.
Also, it necessarily keeps the communication short and to the point (relatively). If I call someone (especially someone I don’t call often), sometimes it feels like there’s a need for smalltalk or “catching up” before getting to the point. With a text message, you’re always right to the point, no pressure to chat about unrelated stuff.
All you damn kids! Get off my lawn!
I hate talking on the phone. Especially to people who listen to the radio, watch tv, or drive with their windows down while talking to me, or just mumble or don’t hold the phone anywhere near their mouth.
mmmbggubba bogga bogga gubba
Me: Can you say that again please?
MMMBGUBBA BOGGA BOGGA GUBBA
Me: Huh?
*%^&* ^&* ^&*() &^#&) ()&
Me: Fucking text me. click
I used it heavily last month.
I was volunteering at a music festable, I was one of the team leaders. With texting I did not have to worry about hearing what was being said on the phone. And I could send out one text message out to more than one person at the same time.
The world’s changed; everyone is communication 24/7 via various different methods. Our kids won’t understand the concept of not being so any more than we can grasp what it would be like to have to send handwritten letters by sea in order to communicate.
Texts are for asking a quick question or passing information when (a) an immediate reply is not important; and (b) when a whole conversation is not desired or appropriate (which, given the 24/7 contact we have, is a perfectly accceptable social norm these days, and not rude).
It’ll get worse, trust me (well, not “worse” but more like this than it currently is).
In exchange for the ability to contact people at any time anywhere in the world, the social contract nowadays offers the text as a non-intrusive “talk to me now!” method of quick communication. It’s a fairly inevitable and necessary evolution.
I gather that those in the US use texts a lot less than, say, Europe. But I think we have to accept that, globally, the very way we communicate is evolving through use of rapid communication devices, social networking websites and applications, and so on. Juts like the way we communicate has evolved before and will continue to evolve in ways we can but imagine until the human race dies out.
When I was in middle school in the early/mid 90s, having a pager got you suspended from school for 10 days.
When I was in high school in the mid/late 90s, having a cell phone or pager got you suspended for 3 days (though I don’t think anyone had a cell phone)
When I was in community college in the early 2000s, having your cell phone go off got you scolded, and it got taken away if the instructor was a real Billy (or Betty) Badass.
In the mid-2000s, they gave you a dirty look and told you to turn the ringer off
Now I’m at university, and people openly text and surf the web on their laptops (whole campus is wifi), and the professors don’t say shit.
What’s it going to be like in 15 more years? Will the frats just move their previous nights’ party into the classroom at 8am?
So u cn lrn 2 spl
Oh goody, another “I hate technology and everyone who uses it” thread. :rolleyes:
(Sorry, the first supraliminal, that may not have been the intention of your OP, but that’s how these threads usually read)
Most of the other respondents have addressed the many benefits of text messaging, but I like the telegram analogy best- it’s good for messages that have some urgency to the delivery, but not necessarily to the reply.
It’s also a way to nag without being *too *annoying. I don’t know how many times I’ve sent an “Everything OK?” to someone running late.
I use it for quick notes when phoning isn’t really approperiate. Or when I need to tell something to someone when I know they can’t answer a phone, but they can read a text.
Drunk text > Drunk calls
In my school the ‘reasoning’ behind the ban on pagers was that **only **pimps and drug dealers carried them. :rolleyes:
I didn’t get that from the OP, nor do I see it anywhere in the 30 posts before you posted. Even if someone does chime in with a counterexample (I don’t text–don’t see the need, etc.) that doesn’t mean the thread is now a “I hate technology and everyone who uses it” gripefest.
It’s like silent voice mail. I can send a message to my 15-year-old son, who isn’t supposed to use his cell phone at school (how closely this rule is followed is another question…) and know he can get it at lunch or after school. And when he gets the chance he can text me back, without the potential teenage embarrassment of having to talk to his mom in front of his friends, and I can get to the message when I have a moment at work. Similarly, I can text my husband, and no matter what’s going on at work (meeting, fixing a client’s problem, up to his elbows in a crisis, in a noisy machine room, or whatever) I know it won’t disturb him or those around him. He’ll get to it when he has a good opportunity, and I can get to his answer when I have a good opportunity. And as others have mentioned, some kinds of information work better in writing, like times or phone numbers when you want to be sure you don’t misunderstand.
Come to think of it I’ve never set up voice mail. If it’s important, text me!
What is texting good for?
Excessive revenue for telecommunications companies.
My last text sent 3 mins ago:
“Let me know when you get out of class and when’s the movie?”
It’s good for when you have a question or something quick and you don’t want to waste a conversation w/ a person.
And yes- “we” HOH/Deaf people do like it.
Not at all. I use maybe 60 minutes a month of talktime on my mobile, but a couple of hundred texts, which are essentially free.
As others have said, why would you bother to actually call somebody just to say “I’ll be home at 6” or “Meet at the Royal Oak at 7.30”, when you can text it in a few seconds?
Anyway, IMO at least, texts have pretty much replaced email, not phone calls. I rarely email friends any more - I tend to text instead. It’s quicker, and I know they’ll get the message there and then, rather than next time they check their mail.
We got audited last year and finally got a resolution. My husband had business meetings all day and I knew he couldn’t be interrupted for anything other than a catastrophe, but I knew he would want to know. So I texted him:
IRS: OK!
What better use?