Text Madness

I don't get texting, I just don't. I especially don't get texting while driving, but that's another story altogether. I get cell phones. I just don't get texting.

Maybe I'm just shaking my cane right now, but I don't see the use. I get the purported benefits; short, quick instant messages. "I'm on my way." "Movie starts at 7." "Just drove by your house and it's on fire." (more accurately: "drv by u house, it n fr"). Such things can be more easily just said. Or, and I know this is old fashioned, one could just show up at a predetermined time.

I use instant-message online all the time, but it feels like talking and I'm at the computer reading while doing so, so it seems to fit. Much like taking a cell phone call, I am locked in with IM. Also, I don't have to use abbreviations to communicate.

I also use my cell phone a lot. It's great. It provides all the convenience a person could need. I call, and receive calls, from anywhere. Huzzah!

Do people text because of the ease alone? Do people text because they can't handle just being alone and quiet? Or do we do it because its just there? For all the benefits of speed and instant, short communication, those legitimate functions seem to have become secondary.

For example, I heard of a teenager who texted more than 1,000 times in a month. I've even heard that such a number has even become common for many people. Of the more-than 30 messages per day it would take to reach 1,000 in a month, most of those would have to be conversational, right?

So, if you text to converse, why not just talk? Judging by how many people will text at the dinner table, text in line or interrupt a conversation to answer a text, either the text or the incoming texter would seem to be preferred. Either way, it pushes us further away from face-to-face interactions.

It was even suggested that Jay Cutler was able to hide behind texting to avoid looking his coach in the eye without his agent there to run a screen. Whether texting actually encourages people to avoid eye contact is to be determined, but it definitely encourages more bold communication and, I believe, a much higher incidence of miscommunication.

Texting also can be maddeningly inefficient.

I received an inquiry about our car for sale via text asking if the car was for sale. I answered "yes." I then received a text asking if he could see it sometime this week. So... I ended the pointless charade and called him and set up a time in about 10 seconds. The texting back and forth took much longer. At that point, texting is not quicker, or more efficient. In fact, I got so tired of the text game I just called and got the matter settled in a snap. How's that for advanced technology?

Finally (and this is where my cane gets out of control), I have read that text language (like "ur" and "plz" etc.) has found its way into school assignments produced by students. I realize that languages are literally alive and that they never stop changing. I also realize that grammar sometimes changes over generations. But, I also don't want someone to find this blog from a cyber-archeology dig and consider it a relic of a language now lost. Imagine that: "These words, they are so inefficiently long! And what are all those symbols? Could they serve any purpose?" (more likely: ths wrds r so crzy lng! symbls? y?).

I spent a lot of time (and money) learning how to make a sentence sound like a voice in your head with those crazy symbols, so, for selfish reasons, I don't want our language to change. At least not until I'm dead. Which has a much higher chance of happening since I keep seeing drivers staring at their laps on the road.