Do you text?

John Pollman

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1,332
Location
Rochester Hills, MI
I just can't figure out the allure of "texting". I just sent my first ever text and it's a pain in the neck!

I've got a question for my brother so I gave him a call. His phone rang and I got his voice mail as I often do. He's in LA so he's three hours behind and sometimes busy at work still when I try to call him so I didn't leave a message and figured I'd call him back later on. A few minutes later I get this strange tone from my cell phone. I didn't know what the heck it was so I looked at it and it said I had received a text. Well after figuring out just HOW to view it the message said...

"I tivo'd the game so I want to watch it later".

I completely understand that he doesn't want to know what's happening but I really needed to talk to him. I wanted to reply and just say that I wouldn't mention the game. I was finally able to figure out how to reply but it's a complete pain in the neck! Isn't just dialing someone and TALKING to them a much quicker and simpler way to have a conversation? I think it is.

How many of you out there text?

I for one DON'T and never plan on doing it again!

John
 
I've got teens. A couple of years ago they kept going over the minutes on the phones, so I finally up'd the minutes and added unlimited texting for the kids. Their minutes went to about 1/10th what they used to use and about 2,000+ texts a month, basically they texted everyone, and hardly made any calls. I've gotten used to texting as they tend to answer if I do. A phone with a QWERTY (full) keyboard helps, but still a lot of work.
 
I text a lot. It's great for times when you can't call...or you don't want to spend alot of time on the phone and just have a short statement to make. Then again, we use it at work alot so as to keep ourselves out of trouble too :)
 
Just started to occaisionally text, but only to folks who I know do.

I do IM a lot for work, so it kind of makes sense to me. Much quicker than a call if you just need a quick answer, particularly if the person you are texting tends to be verbose in normal conversations...
 
I don't text regularly, but I occasionally get a text message from one of my nephews, so I tend to answer them back the same way.

I'd much rather call and talk, or type from a real keyboard.
 
and have any of you noticed, that people will interrupt a conversation to stop and send or receive a text message? quite rude to the party being interrupted if you ask me.
 
and have any of you noticed, that people will interrupt a conversation to stop and send or receive a text message? quite rude to the party being interrupted if you ask me.

I've been seeing more and more of that, too. :rolleyes:

Dang kids.

Get off my lawn.

:rofl:
 
It's a telephone, TALK in it!

But that's just it Dan, the phone I have is a lot more than just a phone. Granted I got it for business purposes but even still, I use it as a mobile entertainment/communications center. I can of course make and receive phone calls including the many times that I'll need to make a conference call while I'm out of the office. I can send and receive my work e-mail (we use the Blackberry service) so I don't need to lug my laptop out every time I need to check e-mail. I can pull up the weather site and check for the tornadoes that seem to haunt Oklahoma on a daily basis. ;) And I can store entire movies and TV episodes on the SD card so that when I'm on a plane, or waiting for a plane, and don't have any work to do I can get lost in the latest episode of "Lost". :D

So, to answer the original question, I do use text. I don't send that many text messages, usually around 50 a month but since I have e-mail on my phone as well I guess you could say I "text" thousands of messages a month.
 
Nope. Don't do it. I've had to carry a cell phone since they were the size of an ammo case. Can't wait to retire and never use one again.
 
Nope I dont do it and whilst I have been a great adopter of new technologies this is one I cannot buy into and hope I never have to.

Far sooner speak to someone or send a decent email.
 
John, I agree with your first sentence.
I don't do it, don't want to, don't plan to.
With one exception. For whatever reason, texting will work in areas of no signal for talking. A text can be sent or received for emergency purposes. My family knows this and any texting will be strictly limited to necessities.
And, I'm with y'all. I simply do not understand the addiction young ("young" is anybody under 50) people have for texting. Groups of kids can be seen standing in a circle, only feet from each other texting instead of talking. I just don't get it.
 
my teens have got me caught up in it, and I do text on occasion. They will at least answer a text... I've noted to them that they need to polish their social skills when answering the phone and in person though. a full qwerty board helps, my Palm is down for the count and I'm using a backup phone at the moment, so I'm back to using the numeric board instead which really cuts down my usage.
 
I teach school. Kids have gotten so good at texting they can do it during class with the phone in the pocket of their hoody without looking. I do text on occasion, but my fat fingers and little buttons make for a lot of errors.
 
For whatever reason, texting will work in areas of no signal for talking.

Hi Frank,

There's a portion of the cell phone signal that's set aside for status type information. It's what allows the "Sprint" or "AT&T" message to be displayed on the phone. Text messaging or SMS, uses this small portion of the signal to send messages. That's also a part of the reason texts are limited to 160 characters. It requires less bandwidth than does a cell phone call so when there's not enough signal to make a call there's still most likely enough signal to send a text message.
 
I text... been doing it for years.... darn young folk ya know ;)
seriously thought it is a pretty handy thing to be able to do....
Say a question pops into my head in the middle of the day while Chuck is at work, I can text him the question and when he gets a minute he can check his phone and get back to me.. I don't have to call and bother him in the middle of the day, or worry about forgetting what i wanted to ask. Texting also takes far less time than a phone call, which is a good thing in a lot of situations. Also some places it would be inappropriate to have a phone conversation (I wish more people would realize that) but you can usually quietly text without being disrespectful to those around you.
I think text messaging is really an invaluable tool in having god open communication.
That said... there are things that bug me about texting like the foolish way people type, thinking they are being cool when they are just making themselves look foolish
 
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