Rich and I were playing the new Mario Kart on the Wii with Jason and Justin recently. It is very fun (and this coming from a non-video gamer). In between turns Justin is texting his brother Ryan, then his phone rings and before answering we hear him say, "I don't want to talk to Ryan, that's why I have text messaging."
This is my beef with texting. I have a phone to talk to people, not to write to people (that is what my computer is for). Rich considers it as a step backwards in technology. Setting aside the fact that I get charged 15 cents for every text I send or receive and I have no way of choosing which texts I receive (except for my free Monday Redbox code, I like that one).
I get annoyed when I get a text from my brother saying, "Hey how u doin?" I think, if you really wanted to know you would call me! Can I really send a decent personal reply through text? Another pet peeve is when I get a text (again probably from my brother) requiring I respond by calling. So instead of him calling me, I get a text and I'm expected to initiate the phone call.
The last of my pet peeve texts is when I get one from an old friend that I haven't spoken to in awhile and they are basically saying, "How have you been? I haven't talked to you in awhile!" Well, you're not talking to me now either! Just send me an e-mail, I have no problem with reconnecting with friends over e-mail where it's free and I have space to expand on what's going on and send pics and I can receive pics from them in return. But really how am I supposed to respond by text?
I never do respond and friends may think I'm rude or ignoring them, but really I feel like texting is used as an excuse to not have to talk to someone just like Justin said when his phone rang! It's a way of avoiding personal contact (not always, but in some of the cases I've just detailed) so I think they are the ones being rude!
And lets not get in to how rude it is for people to be texting someone else while you are sitting right there talking to them! I could do a whole other post on how annoying it is to see kids (and even adults) texting at church, during lessons, at family dinner and wherever else. But I'm done ranting for now!
7 comments:
Hear Hear!!!!
i'm by no means a text-aholic (I think I used about 40 of my 200 on my data plan last month) and i do hate seeing the yw texting during church, and the like. but i must admit that i find that texting has it's place. like when i have a quick message i want to broadcast to several people at once using a text is much faster. or when i know somebody is at work and i just need to relay a message that they don't necessarily need to respond to I will send a text. and yes, sometimes it's because i don't want to talk to somebody because talking carries all these social niceties that sometimes i'm not up too....so maybe that makes me a jerk. sigh.
but if if makes you feel any better once I found out you didn't have a data plan on your cell phones i cut back on texting you. :) does that count for anything?
Thanks Nicole! I agree with you that texting has it's place. Like right after I wrote this I had a client tell me she would be in a meeting and asked if I could text her as to the status of her listing (it's now under contract, hooray!). So it can be very useful.
You are definitely not a jerk. I may be wrong, but I have a feeling when you text someone because you don't want to talk it's because you're a busy mom, not 'cause you're being rude.
If I were willing to pay for a text plan, I'd probably have a different point of view.
Bonnie left this comment on Plaxo so I'm pasting it here:
"Right on sister, you sound like you are a generation older than you really are! I loathe texting on cell phones also."
Bonnie Hill, 12 hours ago
I agree with all. I think my grand total of texting someone else a message is like 5 or something. Yes, it does cost me .15 too. So no biggie, but really...texting?!
Okay, so I do text, but only because it is free with my plan. But it does bother me seeing people text all the time, especially when you are talking to them. Though it works out nice when Isaac is waiting at the Dr's office with a client or at court and can't talk on the phone.
I agree that texting has it's place. I, personally, will text when I just need some quick information from someone and I don't want to end up talking to him or her for more than a minute. It actually cost me less to text (5 cents per text) than it does a minute of talk time (10 cents per minute). So, for me, texting is actually cheeper. But I don't do it a whole lot.
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