Texting

As technology continues to advance in the world, especially in the communications industry, we are finding new ways to communicate with each other. Cell phones, Blackberrys, Instant Messaging, Emails, and two-way paging are just some of the many ways to talk to someone. Yet one form of communication has been bothering me for a while which everyone reading this has participated in.

The beginning of text messaging was the end of talking as we know it. Here is a concept where the sole purpose is to send someone a short message, get the quick short response, and that’s it. I use text messaging because of the convenience and ease of use. If I need to get a quick answer to a question or tell someone where I am, it’s a very convenient way to pass along a message. However, we all know when we are sending a text to another, there’s a hidden message being sent as well. People may not like that I’m exposing this but we all know it’s true. Sending a text message is basically like giving a big F-U to whomever you are sending it to. You’re basically saying to them, “I could call you right now, ask you a question, have a nice little chat, but I’m not going to. I hate talking to you. You’re boring, annoying, and I don’t want to hear how your day went. Instead, answer my short little question, leave me alone, and when I’m ready to talk to you, I’ll contact you…and you dress funny and smell bad.” I know it seems pretty harsh but it’s the truth.

I am aware of this underlying message when I receive a text and it drives me nuts. Of course there are extenuating circumstances, but more often than not calling someone is much faster and easier. I suck at typing messages into my cell phone, it takes me forever and is very time consuming. By the 8th series of texts back and forth to answer someone’s question, I’ve spent $1.40 on texting this person as opposed to a free phone call, I’ve burnt 70 calories trying to vigorously type away with my thumbs since it feels like a race against the clock, and my rage starts to grow. You are asking me, since you’re too lazy to call me in person, to pay to send you a note that you’ll probably need clarification on or have follow-up questions, over a time period of 30 minutes which could have been solved a 4 minute phone call. Am I the only person who thinks this is not the best way to talk to someone?

So you might be asking yourself, “Gary…if you’re so against text messaging, why do you send texts?” To that I’d have to say for the same reasons listed above. I probably don’t want to talk to you and just want you to answer my question without hearing your life story. That being said, if you get a text from me and have read today’s post, I’m talking about the other people I text, not you…