Okay, actually, sorry for the "pithy" title there. I really should have contacted one of my grad school friends to come up with something better.... (Bryan, I should have consulted you first!)
I have many friends who have an abhorrence of text-messaging. And to a point, I completely understand. I've known teenagers to spend hours holding a conversation through text rather than spend an hour in actual voice-to-voice conversation on the phone, racking up more than 600 texts in a week! I've watched people (yes, even on dates!) ignore the person sitting right next to them while they texted someone else. And a young lady at the movie theater last night almost got a piece of my mind for texting throughout the movie and flashing the light of her LCD screen at me as I sat several rows back. (Very distracting, I promise you.)
But I have to admit: I cannot begrudge something when it enables me to get a message with words of love from my husband in the middle of the day. My husband keeps our romance alive simply by texting me three simple little words at random points of my day, and they are always a highlight for me. Yes, I do clutch my phone tightly and gaze at the black words on my screen with a happy, goofy grin. And yes, my heart still flutters each time I see such a text from him, just as much as it did the first times they began to appear on my phone. And it gives me equal pleasure to send him a message back. Nor can I complain that it means I can ask him a simple question and know I'll get an answer at some point in his day, since he is not always reachable by phone. It is not only romance, but a convenience if used wisely.
Do I dislike that texting has become a means for addictive behavior? Yes. Do I deplore the fact that cell phones and texting seem to have become a means for people to completely ignore the rules of etiquette and undermine their social skills by interacting with someone not in the room rather than with someone who is? Certainly. But I can't say texting is the problem. Rather, I think it has more to do with an inability to be present in the room or to use self-discipline and judgement, or even that we are allowing interpersonal social skills go to the wayside. Do I have an answer to the problem? Not necessarily, though I will admit, if I feel you are more devoted to your phone than conversation with me, I might say something, or just leave you to your phone.
But I will still look forward to texts from my husband. They're digital love letters he sends me over the phone instead of leaving them on my pillow.
Texting has definitely changed the face of communication. I was near a group of school kids on a fieldtrip a few weeks ago and the teachers were discussing passing around a bucket for everyone to put their phones in because the kids were so busy texting they weren't getting anything out of the trip.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't text. It's not that I hate it, I just refuse to pay extra for it. It's just crazy, the amount of bandwidth consumed by a second of voice calling is far greater than what is used in a text message, yet the least expensive cell phone plan includes tons of minutes of voice and NO text messages. It's like getting to drive a car for free and being charged to ride your bike.
My kids had better hope that texting is free by the time they are old enough to want to use it (that's not far off for Isaiah) because it ain't going to happen if I'm paying for it.