what is the appeal of texting over talking?
 

i'm gonna sound like some old curmudgeon, but what is up with all the damn texting, and texting instead of talking? i can see if you send a "busy?" text, the person says no and you call and talk. i can see if you send a quick text that doesn't need a reply, or if you need to maintain some kind of radio silence.

however, i don't get people who text instead of talk. i met this chick at the bar, she gave me her number, said to text her the next day, she loves texting, blah blah blah. i tried to call her, she didn't answer, then she texted me, i texted back, and she kept texting, trying to have a conversation. WHY?????

my kid, 19 years old, really smart great kid. she prefers to text over talking on the phone. i asked her why, she doesn't know, she just doesn't like talking on the phone.

are people afraid of talking to each other? has technology and the anonymity of the internet made us fear talking directly to another human? why would you text out a whole damn paragraph when you can call the person, say what you need to say in about 4 seconds, and move on?

why do people prefer texting over actually talking?

the way i see it is if you're nervous when you flirt it'd be easier to flirt by text because you dont have the 'on demand' pressure to say something witty or flirty.

plus youc an drag a conversation out for a full day over one subject. someone sends you a sms, you wait and hour or two, then send back a one liner...you get a reply an hour later, you have lunch, take a dump, iron your clothes and think about the next witty thing you're going to say.

perfect combinations for flirtation!

What happened was, I initially started like you. "Busy? Need to talk." Was a standard template. Then I got a job. You cannot answer the phone at work but you can text incognito.

Then the girls came in hordes. I get chain texts in the masses. You know the ones saying that a little girl will die if she doesn't have heart surgery and phone companies agreed to donate 50 cents each time the text is sent around so forward it to everyone ... what I do is I have to come up with a clever response for it. The more responses I send the more replies I get. The more replies I get the more likely I am to receive the SAME BLOODY TEXT MESSAGE AGAIN!!

I dug myself in this hole and I might just get myself out of it soon. Besides, every one of my friends work and I can't really call them during the day.

Also, I don't like talking on phone. To be honest, I prefer having things written down for people. I find that people will follow written instructions better. Phone conversations would pave way for more unnecessary questions and lately I have been telling people what to do. When they don't do it right I get pissed. Most of my instructional text messages start with "Do this and only this ... " that way they don't ask me "why this and not this instead ... " of which most of the time I don't have an answer, I just need the fucker to follow simple rules!! Text messages are good for addresses and lists.

I like text messages. They calm my nerves.

I'm not going to call a bunch of friends to make a dumb comment or joke that I would in person, but I have unlimited texting to them, and I can say small things that don't deserve a phone call. It's not rude to text while taking a shit, talking is not. A lot of people can't talk on the phone at work, but they can text. With someone you just met, it takes the pressure off you for the conversation because you can wait to respond, edit what you say before you send, etc.

It's easier to do things while I text than it is while I'm on the phone...

Back when I was voting for Obama, eating steak, and riding monster trucks, I thought that these whipper snappers with their phone mail were full of poppycock. Now that I'm in Asia, texting is cheap and it's how we get things done. It's like cocaine.

In short, I like texting because I hate people.

at some point i decided it would be a good idea to change the language of my stupid cellphone to french. then i changed phones and can't figure out how to make the word-guessing function stop. so it tries to guess what i'm about to write, but does it in french. this has created a situation in which all i can really text people are strings of more or less arbitrary letters. so i can write the sounds one might make while having a significant seizure of some kind in all situations which seem to call for such a response, but cannot answer things like "i'm standing in line outside the club are you already inside?"

needless to say, this has functionally erased much space for flirtation by text, except in those rare instances in which a string of more or less arbitrary letters is the perfect next move.

someday soon i am going to get another device and throw this one far far into the ocean.

I text because it's quick and easy...it's like slow instant messenger, or email--although, with modern devices, the lines between texting, IMing, and emailing are so blurred half the time I don't know what kind of message I got...all of them in a G1 look similar, and are stored from the same contact.

People think they're incognito about texting, but the fact is--they're not.

It drives me up the wall when people text in lecture. They're paying $500 for a class, yet they're too busy pecking away at their phone under the desk to be paying attention. And they think they're being discreet, that no one can see them. I hate to disappoint them, but everyone, including the professor, knows what you're doing.

I understand the appeal of texting. I don't have text messaging myself because my provider makes it prohibitively expensive for existing customers (yay Sprint) and we don't want to renew our contract to get a special deal because they're dicks. I do just fine without it. There are certainly times when I wish I did have it, but there is rarely a situation where a phone call won't suffice. If I'm really desperate to send a text, Verizon's website has a little "Send a Text" thing that lets me text my SO.

Manners have yet to catch up with these devices, and I really hope they do--soon, before I start bitching people out.

^^ You're overdoing it. And you hate sprint because the customer service people you spoke to don't know jack shit about the damn service. Really sprint is cheap and easy and I have no idea who the hell told you you had to renew your service contract to add 300 text messages for $5 monthly.

Secondly, why does it annoy you when people stand in front of a trash can, remove their purse/wallet, and throw their money in their trash? I have never understood this. It's their money ... no? If the phone doesn't make any sound except the distinct buzz of a vibration then how is that different from clearing your throat?

RB, what kind of phone do you have and ... wait for it, wait for it ... did you read the user guide?

xerxys: i perhaps left out the fact that i kind of enjoy this state of affairs.

Kids today, with their hoopity hoop and jiggity jack and low pants...

I text when I have just one topic and need a quick answer. That means I text about once a month. Or if I'm going for a run with one particular friend.

But I do understand why it's a helpful tool. It's just one I don't feel the need to use real often.

Obviously the correct answer is either "oui" or "non"...

I text when I can't talk. Or when it's just a hit of info that's needed, not a whole discussion. Or a "here" when I'm pulling up to pick someone up who's inside her office (ahem) to let her know I'm here. I have that one on a "template" so it's three clicks to send it.

I used to be that guy, the "I don't need texting, I'll just call" guy. Somewhere along the line (and I don't know when or how this happened) I just conformed and started texting.

It's mostly when I'm at work, when I'm sitting in my cubicle alone but still can't be talking loudly about my personal life all day. I have an unwritten rule that if my texts exceed more than 1 or 2 in a chain and start to become a conversation, I just dial the person's number and talk to them. I refuse to send more than a few quick bullet points via text unless I really can't talk.

Texting is convenient for me if I'm in a public place and don't want people hearing in on my conversation. Most of the time I simply just don't feel like talking on the phone, so texting is easier for me in general I guess.

i have three teens and i'm fairly certain they don't even know how to dial a phone and talk to a human. but my baby girl (she's 15 and the source of most of my grey hair *sigh*) can clock in 11-12,000 texts a month. so as a family we communicate by text a lot as we all lead hectic social lives. plus it's fun to send a group text when dinner's ready. not to mention the fact that the wife and i enjoy seriously sexually depraved conversations and you tend to get funny looks when on the bus discussing the ways you would like to worship someones ass!
:thumbsup:

^^ Oh man, I can only imagine what horrors would happen with those dinners ready group text messages and the dirty talk gone wrong!!

The obvious solution is to call tech support and record it. And before you throw it in the ocean, take the battery out and recycle it :)
For me, the incognito part is that people can't hear what I'm saying. If they're texting in class, at least they're not talking.
Assuming 8 hours of sleep per day, this comes out to one text per two minutes of every waking hour. I can manage 2000, but that's ridiculous.

I don't text. I don't respond to people's text with a text, they will get a phone call. Maybe when we change plans and get a better keyboard then t9 crap.

Personally I don't like to email either when a personal touch like a phone call goes much much further.

the girls fingers move like freakin vipers! and i'm fairly certain she doesn't sleep. we have actually thought about entering her into the world texting championships.
so far we haven't mixed up any convos with the kids, but there was an errant pic of some saucy hello kitty panties sent to a friend of ours who is one click away from my name in her contact list! he seemed to enjoy it...

We have turned text messages off our phones. We hate texting.
Text messages weren't covered for free under our plan and people were sending us far too many. Too many friends/family sending us picture texts and just plain random junk. Yuck.

Dude, your gonna make me scramble to get a pen and paper to write down an address when you can text it? what about directions and I don't have google maps nearby? C'mon man.

Phone calls are not at all useless but it's not all the time you need to be personal on everything you know.

Nokia E71, call plan with 1,000 texts included, bluetooth enabled desktop machine, phone set to vibrate only and in my pocket = I can text from my desktop as if it were email during the day and nobody at work can ( A ) read my messages (as they could if I emailed) or ( B ) realise it's not all work.

As others have stated, I don't like taking personal calls at work, even though my boss wouldn't mind as I certainly put the hours in.

Watching people texting when they think nobody can see and that they're pretending to work is annoying to me though, and I have been known to casually mention that I saw, and that maybe people should be more discreet.

after watching 2 people trying to exchange phone numbers via texting for 10 minutes instead of just calling the others' phone or using pen and paper...

also when I call, I'm more mindful of someone else's time and encroaching on that time. Things like email, voicemail, and texting make the assumption that the receiver has the time, gumption and interest in reading a new inbox, or pile of work. "Didn't you read my email?" "I told you that in the voicemail!" "I texted you the information"

That's not effective communication in my book. If I can't guarantee that you HEARD what I said and UNDERSTOOD what idea I was trying to convey, it's a waste of time just jaw jawing or thumb boarding.

So I do not check my voicemail on a regular basis. I don't find it reasonable to have to check my voicemail on my cellphone, work phone, and home phone. I can see who is calling via caller ID and I will call you back. If it's important you can speak directly to me and tell me what you wanted to say. If it's something as simple as... the verbal equivalent of "lolz u should b here its fun." it's a waste of my time.

Apply the same to email. I have a personal email for actual business. Sully it with "You should send this to 5 friends..." and you get put into the spam folder filter.

I've received a total of one text message. It was a friend letting me know he'd be late for breakfast. I didn't even know I could receive texts, so it wasn't until he showed up (late) that I saw the text.

Most of my incoming text messages are from machines.
I don't want to talk to them.
I don't want to talk to you either but sometimes I might want to tell you something.
Like this.
This would have been a very brief phone call.

I text for
1. Privacy in public (and not annoying everyone)
2. Being in places where it's too loud to hear anything (club, bar, etc)
3. It's a lot easier and less formal if you don't have much to say, but something still important

It's the same reason that no one is ever in the chat room here.

Also, you can text where it is noisy (club, concert, gun range, construction site, etc), or where the signal is not great.

People who text instead of call piss me off.

My voice doesn't have a Backspace Key.

I never texted but then I was in the beginning stages of seeing this girl and all she does is text. I could upgrade my phone that month so I got an iphone. Now I text because it's easier than calling someone.

I get pissed-off reading text-speak. I watch my buddy texting back and forth with his girlfriend and sometimes read what she says. It's basically gibberish.
I weep for the future of the English language.

I always write full words.

Interesting research recently casts some doubt on the idea that txt spk kills language - apparently frequent texters have a wider vocabulary than non texting teens, and their spelling is no worse.

Unlimited texting is hella cheaper than unlimited minutes.

I'd venture a guess that many of the texters came from this environment. I don't mind texting for a quick comment or question when you don't want to bother someone with a phone call, but if we're texting back and forth for more than 5 minutes, it's time to pick up that phone and dial 'cause my time's a-wasting.

These kids are FAST! I swear, my teens can respond to me just as I'm pressing "send". :surprised:

I agree-anyone who has read a letter written 100 years ago can't help but be impressed at the average writing ability from back then compared to the lazy gibberish of today. I wonder what they'll think of our writings 100 years from now.

I don't get the texting thing-I would rather call.

I've also noticed that texting drivers are becoming a major problem. A friend of mine rear ended another car because he was trying to text and drive. The funny part is he is a cop and he was working at the time. Luckily no one was hurt and damage was minimal to both vehicles.

Texting is very cheap. It's easier to send a text to my wife to say, "can you pick up some milk" than it is to initiate a full conversation full of pleasantries and interruptions.

Oh yeah, dirty conversations are much more discreet with texting.

I dunno, when I'm dating someone I'm into, I get a little thrill everytime I see their name pop up on my phone. When they call, I get one big thrill. When they text, I get a bunch of little thrills. Both good.

I was one of those people watching the kids furiously texting one another while wondering why the hell they would want to go to all that damn trouble when all they had to do was dial the number.

Now with my iPhone, I'm a texting mother huncher. I can communicate with my wife, my three sons, my daughter-in-law, my niece and anyone else at the same time at times when it is convenient for all of us. In fact I rarely make voice calls to friends and family because texting works so well for us.

i still don't see how texting is easier. i can talk on a phone while i ride my bike or drive a car or walk. i can put the phone on speaker and talk while i cook or shave or whatever. when i text i have to stop what i'm doing and look at the buttons and keep clicking until i get the right letter and spell out every fucking word. i can call and we can each say three sentences and hang up in the time it takes one of us to type a sentence.

and sometimes it just seems so impersonal. just like on this forum, you can't hear the tone or inflection of the voice, it's flat. yeah it's great under certain circumstances, just not for every little communication. i'm actually thinking of not bothering with this chick, cause she won't talk, only text.

Some day she will regret you not bothering with her due to her texting preferences.

WHAT? WHA,,, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN YOU CANNOT HEAR TONE EH? HEAR MY TONE, DO YOU HEAR IT NOW UH? dO YOU HEAR IT SQUEEEB?

Dude, totally bother her, I promise you ... it will be the best thing you ever did. And also, any good functioning phone has T9. You dont have to type a key thrice to spell out a word. C'mon, try it!!