How many times do you text instead of
call? You use the same keys on the phone for both purposes. You allow for much the
same time and concentration for the action. What’s the real difference here?
Is the difference that with texting you
can abbreviate nearly every word in order to avoid actually explaining yourself
to a live human being? Is this avoidance merely a manufactured stratagem to
keep people at a distance rather than to allow them into your life? Have you
ever really thought about why you do it? I’m not talking time savings, either.
Texting, for me, is a tedious thing. On
the flip side, I no longer care for talking on the phone, either. Some may say
that I’m isolating myself from others, including family. But is that true?
Looking at it under the microscope, I
see that in one respect the accusation is true. I really detest solicitation
calls, harassment-type calls, and those that interrupt my writing activities.
As a result, I keep my phone turned off most of the time. Ask my friends and
family if you don’t believe me.
Allowing for that quirk of mine, I can
say that I also don’t like voicemail. I try to avoid that like a bad case of bird
flu. I will return text messages once a day or so if I have them waiting.
Those who know me also know that this is
how I deal with things from outside my office and home. As I’ve gotten older, I
don’t particularly want interruptions to what I’m doing. I have enough of a
juggling act going without that.
I talk to hundreds of people each week
on the computer, some frequently, and have no difficulty dealing with the
volume, most of the time. Although, there are days when one more email could
have me dropping off the cliff called “Not Enough Time.”
I call my dad every day unless I’m
prevented by circumstance or timing on a given day. I try to call extended
family at least once a month—at least one of them anyway—to touch base and see
what the southern group is doing. I also have those family members I connect
with on the computer, and as with most families, word always gets around,
sooner or later.
Most of the time, I use the phone for
business only, with a few exceptions. Friends I don’t get to see in person or
family members, who would rather talk on the phone than write, get regular to
semi-regular calls from me. The reasons are agreed upon by both parties.
My brother texts me, if he can, instead
of calling, mostly because of his schedule and the time zones between us. He
hates talking on the phone worse than I do. I think that must come from our
upbringing. We weren’t allowed to spend much time on the phone when we were growing
up and the call had to have value each time. Telephones weren’t toys back then,
and a person didn’t replace them because a new model came out.
Few of us write actual letters anymore.
Our personal world pace seems to have gone “a gallopin’” as the old-timers used
to say. Our lives are cluttered with so many activities, must-do’s, plans, and
expectations that we don’t give ourselves time to stop and think for more than
five minutes before we’re off and running again.
Real letters take time to write. Thought
is necessary for how and what we write in them. Texting doesn’t require that,
only abbreviations and a ten-second window of opportunity. Phone calls require
listening to what someone has to say, processing that information, and
composing an adequate and appropriate reply.
Emails are faster and less thoughtful most of the time, as is texting.
Is it any wonder that technology has
encouraged a withdrawal from the previous methods of communication? Look where
the Pony Express got us. The USPS!
Let me know how you feel on this
subject. Agree or disagree with what I’ve said. Each communication type has
both plus and minus columns.
Until later,
Claudsy
PS—Over at http://claudsy.wordpress.com/ I’ve
delved even further into this subject, but with a different slant entirely.
Please take a few moments to hop over there and take a gander at the other side
of the tracks.
No comments:
Post a Comment