Today, I was feeling a little lost and depressed. My cell phone battery has been dead since yesterday. And of course, I'm panicking. Why don't I just charge it? The charger was left at my brothers' house and I probably won't get it for another few days. You may not think this is that big of a deal, but it really is.
All day I've been getting messageses on my Facebook wall asking me if I got so-and-so's text. Nope. I really haven't. No, I swear. I'm not ignoring you. I swear! I'm not! It's my phone! I promise! Oh, fine. Don't believe me then. As a result of all this out of the loop-ness , I have been checking my Facebook page every ten minutes to make sure I haven't missed out on some piece of gossip, some exciting plans to meet somewhere, or the status updates of my friends.
"But texting is so... impersonal. And all that bad grammar and spelling!" You say. Well. Let's start with the bad grammar and spelling. You think we do it because we're lazy. We do it because most of us pay per text sent and have to fit as much as we can into those 160 characters so we don't have to send an extra text and cost us more money. It's not a matter of can we spell and do we remember what we were taught in English, it more of a 'Do we want to spend more money?' kind of a thing.
Point numero dos. Impersonal. My bum it is. So, you may not actually be face to face or be able to actually hear what the person is saying. But after a while, you can hear the person speaking in your mind. You pick up their mannerisms and can truly hear them speaking even though it's just a bunch of letters on a screen. Besides. There's so much you can do with words. What is a conversation but words strung together to create a conversation as beautiful as a string of pearls. Who says this has to be limited to face to face conversation? You underestimate the power of a few words.
All in all, texting is a broad subject. There's so much more to consider. But it's convenient, easy, and can be cheaper than certain calling plans. So, why not? Besides. All teenagers like playing with a new toy. ;)
PS: My dad picked me up a car charger. He said if I was going to be driving around in winter I should have one anyways. Crisis averted.
-Spencer
This is a fun read Spencer. I also feel very disconnected without my phone or computer around (and I'm almost 50!)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your crisis has been averted and you can stay connected.
My daughter and I text Packer games! She's in college, so we watch the games together and share our reactions via text. "OMG, TD!" is okay with me!
ReplyDeleteGreat start to your blog Spencer. It took my kids awhile to convince me that I didn't have to spell out every word in a text/IM or use correct punctuation. Then the day arrived that I started to write the morning letter to my second graders and I started using "im" and "ur" ummm not so good in that situation! Now that I have a keyboard on my phone I love texting and I use it all the time to keep in touch with my kids. I even use it to set up appointments with my financial adviser, it's so much easier than playing phone tag. I'm over 50 and like you and Anne I feel very disconnected if I don't have access to my phone and computer.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to hear your point of view. I have recently begun texting more with my friends and find I'm enjoying it. I worry about my students texting though. We've had some real problems at school with bullying that occurs on texts. Does that happen with you and your friends?
ReplyDeleteI'm really enjoying the blog Spencer! You are right, texting is a huge issue, with so many things to discuss. I agree that texting can be very personal. In much the same way that email or chat can be easier to say some of those tough things face to face, texting gives you a little security to have those hard conversations in a slightly removed manner. I also feel like texting can be less intrusive than a phone call or face-to-face contact. The onus is on the receiver to respond. If they don't feel like it, it is easy for them to ignore or put off a message. I'm 30 and use texting for all sorts of purposes, from checking in with my husband to waking up my student workers (I work at a university) when they are late for work. I have refused to shorten my language though and with unlimited texting, I don't need to worry about it. Keep up the great blogging!
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