Have you ever been mid-text and almost dropped your phone due to thumb cramping? Well if you have, this is a sign that you, like me, may need to limit your text time. With all the alleged ways we use to have quicker and more convenient conversations (i.e. texting and IMs), I wonder if we have actually lost the ability to have a good verbal chat or to write a nice letter or email. While I am the first to admit that I don't much care for talking on the phone, I do still appreciate a personal touch to my conversations. And frankly, at this age, I don't appreciate having to use the little bit of thumb mobility I have left typing a note on a tiny keypad in order to avoid discussing real feelings via some other means of communicating. These days, thanks to those nifty text messages, all sorts of things seem to be handled through more impersonal methods.
People start and end relationships by text message. Booty calls are arranged by text (wow, isn't it at least worth dialing?) Students are beginning to use text language in school papers out of mere habit. Friends text entire conversations so as not to miss any of their favorite tv show. Jokes and dirty cartoons arrive via text messaging and even my mother can manage to send me a text even though she doesn't know much else about how her phone works. Even though I'm not in love with the idea of texting for everything all the time, I found myself texting recently while sitting in church. It seems to me as though this has gone from a way of relaying a quick message to an invasive and impersonal way of talking to those we claim to love. This leads me to wonder what happened to the personal touch. The touch that didn't involve a keypad on a cell phone.
I miss getting a good letter electronically or from the good old post office. I miss sentences complete with subject and predicate. I miss punctuation. I miss YOU instead of U. I mostly miss knowing that someone put some time, thought, and energy into a conversation with me. Somehow that seems to have gotten lost in the world of texting.
At this point I don't know if I'm just too old for texting or just old-fashioned. Whichever it is, I'd like to keep my texting to a minimum and my real talk to the maximum.
People start and end relationships by text message. Booty calls are arranged by text (wow, isn't it at least worth dialing?) Students are beginning to use text language in school papers out of mere habit. Friends text entire conversations so as not to miss any of their favorite tv show. Jokes and dirty cartoons arrive via text messaging and even my mother can manage to send me a text even though she doesn't know much else about how her phone works. Even though I'm not in love with the idea of texting for everything all the time, I found myself texting recently while sitting in church. It seems to me as though this has gone from a way of relaying a quick message to an invasive and impersonal way of talking to those we claim to love. This leads me to wonder what happened to the personal touch. The touch that didn't involve a keypad on a cell phone.
I miss getting a good letter electronically or from the good old post office. I miss sentences complete with subject and predicate. I miss punctuation. I miss YOU instead of U. I mostly miss knowing that someone put some time, thought, and energy into a conversation with me. Somehow that seems to have gotten lost in the world of texting.
At this point I don't know if I'm just too old for texting or just old-fashioned. Whichever it is, I'd like to keep my texting to a minimum and my real talk to the maximum.
1 comment:
Once again, outstanding! SHAME on that person for texting you during church! (hee hee)
xoxox,
Moi
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