texting?
- Thread starter Narz
- Start date
Ditto. I've never been able to see myself using those tiny keys on my phone to leave someone a message. Give me a full keyboard any day, which is a little awkward to carry around with you. Hell, I rarely even use my phone for that matter. Email is by far my preferred method of communication. Or face to face.
Narz
keeping it real
Mine as well. My ex used to rage at me for not picking up my phone whenever she called. Constantly being on call means you're not free. I'm not an ER doctor. I think Arwon has a point about texts being lower maintenance, and not having to respond right away (or listen to a rambling voicemail) is nice. Still I prefer email (which is free) to texts (which cost me about a penny & a half each to read & write).
Really? Wow. I just assumed texts were free everywhere.
Borachio
Way past lunacy
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There seems to be a distinct cutoff between people who text (a lot), and those who hardly ever do.
I have tried to text. But, goodness me, was I crap at it!
Phones are good, though. As it matters not a bit what you look like. But I can't say I use the thing that much.
E-mail is good. And I much prefer it to voice-mail, which I never, ever*, use. I suppose I might - if it was a dire emergency and I really had no choice.
*watch very carefully: this is one of the very few occasions that I will ever use the phrase "never, ever,".
Narz
keeping it real
I have a Tracfone, I pay about $220 a year for 4,500 minutes. Each text I read or write is .3 minutes. Beats paying $30-$100 a month.
I don't even own anything I can use for texting. If I knew how to text, which I don't.
No, they don't.
I love texting. I first realized how amazing it was when I had a conversation with someone while I was on the bus. I have no appetite for talking on the phone on the bus, so the texting was awesome.
And then, at work, we could coordinate while each in different location in a 15 story building. That was awesome.
Finally, I am WAY funnier over text, because I have more time to create a clever turn of phrase.
And then, at work, we could coordinate while each in different location in a 15 story building. That was awesome.
Finally, I am WAY funnier over text, because I have more time to create a clever turn of phrase.
Gori the Grey
The Poster
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And only because, before we even get to your footnote, you've qualified that "never, ever" to not quite mean "never, ever."
CFC:OT will just have to keep waiting for a matter about which you can unreservedly use an absolute. I, anyway, am always on the watch.
Everyone should, and I'm going to continue to assume they do.
There's really no reason not to have caller id, a phone supporting it costs $10 and there's no savings to be had with phone plans that don't have the feature.
Zack
99% hot gas
I wasn't aware people still used phones that didn't have caller id. It's not the 90's.
Tarquelne
Follower of Tytalus
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I think that's completely correct. Not universally, but it's common depending on just how often you meet people, how much you have to say, what sort of thing, etc. etc.
Where I think texting gets a bad rap is that some of what people have to say isn't even worth texting. But texting is seen as so little effort, at each end, they do it anyway. Worse, its so easy they put even less thought into what they're communicating. Rather than an excellent replacement for phone calls it becomes a poor replacement for conversation, or thinking.
This is, I imagine, essentially what my great-grand father may have said of the ball point pen. And he was right!
My point isn't so much that people are needlessly down on new technologies, or texting is in some unique way bad*. My point is a lot of people like to blather and/or be blathered at, texting is an example of how it's getting ever-easier, so humanity will fall to the knives of the Skaven rat-men.
*Well, actually, tiny keyboards and screens may discourage substance while doing little to discourage blather.
Harv
Emperor
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I was trying to figure out why almost everybody prefers texting to voice conversations, and then I read this. I have a friend I have not seen in five years, or interacted with in fifteen years, and he tries to call me once a week and leaves voice messages. Text, dude! Text! Just text!
Uh, remind me upgrade to a smart phone and get unlimited text messaging.
Caller ID is up there with remote control as greatest inventions. Next thing we need is a robo-call screener that prevents unwanted phone calls from getting to us in the first place.
Borachio
Way past lunacy
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Then please enlighten me as to where I can buy such a thing. Even my current basic landline was over $10, and I really had to argue with the salesclerk at Walmart, because she kept insisting that phones like that didn't exist anymore and tried to sell me some gadget that cost over $100.
My last phone had just died (that I'd owned for about 10 years and had paid about $9 for at London Drugs), I was next to broke until my next cheque, and desperately needed a phone.
Terxpahseyton
Nobody
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Texting can add a playfulness to communication simply talking with each other lacks. That can be a lot of fun. I don't think it is responsible for any relevant decrease of social quality. I think there are just people who seek to express their alienation in a way that it has reassuring meaning. I also think though that texting can become an obsession. Just as facebook can be one. Or twitter.
Or Internet forums.
Or Internet forums.
Gori the Grey
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Oh, you're nothing if not forthright. It's just that in being so, you're also at pains to make sure nothing important is leftback.
