Probably four months ago now, Natasha came home from studying in the park and was telling me about a conversation she overheard. A rather astute stoner said, “Texting has created a generation of pussies.” Well this little insight has stayed with me for months. I have thought a lot about it and what I see as a totally new generation of communication.
I remember the first text message I ever got. I was 16 years old sitting at my desk, writing an English paper on my humongous Dell desktop computer. From across the room on my nightstand, my humongous Nokia phone made a very foreign beeping sound. I vividly remember pressing a few buttons and magically opening was I came to find was a text message from my then “boyfriend.” As a typical 16 year old smitten kitten, my English paper was soon forgotten and the next hour was spend trying to figure out how to respond. But wait; here comes the climax of my story. When my phone bill came at the end of the month, the text messages totaled $1.60. Yes, one dollar and sixty cents. For the mathematically challenged, that comes out to 16 text messages that month!!! I hope you find this a shocking and thought provoking as I do. Nowadays, people send 16 texts in a minute.
Today texting has completely abolished the phone call, because through text you can be connected at literally every second of the day. All those places you couldn’t communicate 10 years ago—the classroom, a meeting, the tarmac seconds before take off, are all are now total communication zones. Even the texts are getting smarter…autocorrect now predicts my cuss words. On the android, you can verbally speak into your phone and it types out what you said into a text message. Really? People would rather speak into an inanimate device than call the person and tell them what they are now telling a smart phone. Interesting no? To further my point, while typing this post in Microsoft Word, I notice that spell check no longer flags “texting” as misspelled; a shock in and of itself.
To be honest, as human contact wanes I get a little sad. While “lol” and “!!!” express excitement in type, it just isn’t the same as hearing that laugh from a friend or the high-pitched excitement of an impending visit or date. I can’t tell you how many text messages I have decoded for friends. “What did he mean by that?” Or “am I reading into this?” Without hearing the influx of someone’s voice it really is hard to detect annoyance, sarcasm or enthusiasm. I mean how are you supposed to screen for serial killer in a text message?
Furthermore, what happened to the days of “Hi Mrs. Smith is Sally home?” Nowadays Mrs. Smith could go months without knowing whom Sally is talking to. Cell phones, but text messages in particular have made this the norm. And here in San Francisco it’s the same sort of pains. You better bet that men and women alike will text that gorgeous girl or guy rather than call. I mean you could literally date for weeks before ever talking on the phone. Seriously pathetic. So, has texting, has the absence of phone calls created a whole new generation? A generation of pussies?
It’s my opinion that it really has. Negative or positive, I’m not really sure. All I know for sure is I am still the ultimate call-screener. I hate phone and text and would rather look the person in the eye over a goblet of Pinto Noir.
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This certainly applies to me (the older generation) Pete just put my phone on T9 so I can text faster. Ha – had to call Erin and ask her what to do if the right word wouldn’t come up and she said keep pressing next.
What makes matters worse is Shelley is getting rid of her landline and NOW I have to memorize her cell no. I have it on my cell, but I always used to call her when home from our landline.