thoughts on the news of the day: texting

hmmm…..

            Why all the texting?  Seems like everywhere you look these days, people are hearing a ding, looking down at their phone and punching the keypad to communicate nonverbally.  Wonder why?  Why would we write a terse text when we could actually talk to a person on the phone? 

            One reason it works for me is that my daughter is a school teacher and cannot receive phone calls during classes.  So if she needs to know something from me, she can write a phone note and I can easily reply.  I don’t like it as much as actually talking to her, but it beats not hearing from her at all.

            That is a practical reason, but I wonder if there are other reasons for texting.  As far as relationships, texting allows the sender and receiver to remain aloof.  There is no need for commitment or deep conversation because there is always instant opportunity to “get back to you later”.  Texting is one step removed from talking to a person and two steps from actual face to face communication which can be very intimidating and frightening.

            Another reason we text is because it’s cool.  Receiving a lot of texts means that lots of people like you, or at least want to “talk” to you.  So texting can be a sort of popularity contest.  One texter claims to have texted or received texts 12,000 times in one month.  Now, that’s a lot of texts. 

            A development I find disturbing is seeing parents continually texting others when they could be talking to their children.  What kind of message does this give to the child when a tiny box is more important than they are?

            So, I guess I have more questions than answers about texting – and I haven’t even gotten to the danger of texting while driving.  I know I am not going to stop because at times, it is just too convenient.  But I think I’ll slow down.  I think I will try and use the talking part of the phone more often. 

            hmmm…..