I finally succumb to the pressure.
For the past few months I've received text messages from a business colleague who apparently forgets I don't have texting in my cell phone plan. As a result, I've paid additional charges to AT&T. My recent cell phone bills make it clear to me that it's cheaper to add texting to my plan than to pay a la carte.
So it's official. I now text, heaven forbid. Last weekend, while sitting in an open house for a property we have for sale, I practiced creating text messages and learning how to punctuate. Tedious, I must admit. While I came away with some basic skills, I also came away with a sore neck that required a trip to my chiropractor this week.
I'm not sure texting is a good thing. Oh sure, my adult daughters are thrilled that Mom can now text. And it was exciting when daughter #1 texted me that she had landed safely in Chicago on her return home from Europe. And with the flurry of texting that went on with daughter #2 last weekend, my husband was sure I'd run through my plan in no time flat.
Yes, texting can come in handy when I need to get someone's attention. Like yesterday when I texted 3 business colleagues about an offer made on a property and told them to get the details in the email I sent.
There's also a little thrill, I admit, when my phone goes off to indicate I've rec'd a text. This will wear off quickly, I predict. The part I find less thrilling is having to compose a reply using the keypad of a plain old cellphone. I'm fatigued after sending off the message. My friend has an IPhone and with the ease of that keypad sends me texts several paragraphs long!
Unlike texting, I think that email is one of the greatest advances ever created. I pride myself on being one of the first out of my circle of friends, family and professional colleagues to use email back in the early '90's. In spite of spam and other abuses of email, I still derive great value from it.
In my middle-aged opinion, texting has a place . . . but a much smaller place in the large scheme of things. I grew up during a time when people hand-wrote letters to one another. When talking long distance on the phone was a luxury (I always called collect to home while in college). We learned to communicate the old fashioned way. Call me old-school, I still like to hear a person's voice.
On the other hand, my daughters live in a generation addicted to texting and other forms of electronic communication. My kids sleep with their cell phones, and my niece admits to be compulsively attached to her Blackberry. One of these days the American Psychiatric Association will include obsessive texting in their diagnostic manual.
Since it doesn't hurt to broaden my perspective, please leave a comment and share how texting has affected your life. If you don't text, tell us why.
In the meantime, I'll text when absolutely necessary, but no more.
[Photo Credit: John Lee]
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