TEXTING!!!

[jsfbond]

It's not OK, it's rude. Same with receiving a phone call while talking with someone else, unless it's an emergency I'll always tell the caller that I'll call them back later. All too often, people will take the call and gab away, often about nothing important while the other person just has to sit there. It seems that being polite has gone down the drain.

At the parts store we get people who walk in talking on the cell, and come up to counter to ask for parts. When asked questions about their vehicle, they are usually too involved on the phone to answer us...so we wait on the next person in line. Its not good to be rude, but the rest of the world should not have to wait untill they are done talking.

 

[NutmegCT]

At the parts store we get people who walk in talking on the cell, and come up to counter to ask for parts. When asked questions about their vehicle, they are usually too involved on the phone to answer us...so we wait on the next person in line. Its not good to be rude, but the rest of the world should not have to wait untill they are done talking.

BRAVO!

I wish more folks would do that, instead of just sitting and seething.

T.

 

[tk421]

Texting in public is a rudeness and attention question. I couldn't walk up to a counter and say "I need a quote for a price of EBC Redstuff Pads and Rotors: Here are the parts numbers" while texting.

But I see nothing wrong with doing it at a lull in the conversation or meal when you're at a restaurant.

Unless I'm doing something that requires all of my attention, like playing a video game or reading or typing, I will answer the first text and then silence the phone.

People who are so absorbed in texting need to be hit in the head with a stick. One time, a friend of mine and I were driving around with his female friend and she was oblivious to reality. We kept saying "(she) is a (insert insult)" or other things that your average teenager would say. She had no clue and didn't even look up from her phone.

As long as you silence your phone, texting is more discreet than calling. You don't need to get up, fumble around with chairs, walk in front of or behind people, and make a public scene while repeating "sorry". You can just type in your lap and no one is offended. Just silence the phone.

I also hate the phone, and I have never liked calling or being called. Texting takes the anxiety and bother out of it for me. That and texting is better for small talk, because if you just want to see how someone is doing, they won't need to stop their day just to talk to you. You both can answer at your own pace.

 

[sd80mac7204]

It is easier to text holding the phone under my desk at work than it is trying to hide under the desk to call a person... And I get less strange looks.

 

[Brooklands]

This seems vaguely appropriate

(Dan Piraro's cartoons crack me up quite often. I just wish they were in the local news rag...)

 

[NutmegCT]

Dave - great cartoon. Note they're not talking directly to each other, even in the home!

Here's a familiar scene: the humans of the future, obese bodies sucking down sugary drinks, while riding in electric carts and ignoring each other, communicating only through digital text and images. And electronic ads blast them from every side.

gack.

T.

 

[waltesefalcon]

I think the next leap forward in communication will be a little red button on a black fob instead of a phone. You won't even be able to make traditional calls where you talk to someone using your antiquated voice. The button will simply light up and beep at you. Then using a code everyone will learn (I know the idea of learning a code to communicate might seem a little extreme but seeing the odd and incomprehensible shorthand people use on the internet, and I assume in text messages, I don't think its too far fetched) you will simply beep out a message back to the first person. It will be so much easier than having to open your mouth or wearing out both thumbs trying to send a clumsy text message.

 

[rick_ingram]

I think the next leap forward in communication will be a little red button on a black fob instead of a phone. You won't even be able to make traditional calls where you talk to someone using your antiquated voice. The button will simply light up and beep at you. Then using a code everyone will learn (I know the idea of learning a code to communicate might seem a little extreme but seeing the odd and incomprehensible shorthand people use on the internet, and I assume in text messages, I don't think its too far fetched) you will simply beep out a message back to the first person. It will be so much easier than having to open your mouth or wearing out both thumbs trying to send a clumsy text message.

Kinda sounds like Morse Code.

Circa 1912

... - - - ...

 

[waltesefalcon]

....///.///-.--///////.--///....///.-///-///////.-///////--.///---///---///-..///////..///-..///.///.-

The slashes are the spaces, for some reason when I first posted it it ran the whole thing together.

 

[Mickey Richaud]

NO, IT'S NOT!

 

[DrEntropy]

Geez, Mick! No CW ticket then?

 

[ObiRichKanobi]

Here's a funny one...real story from just this morning....

My nephew (19) is staying with us. He and a friend were up early this morning and decided via text to go to breakfast. Dear Nephew gets ready and drives over to the guy's house and texts him from the driveway. No response. Tries several times over the next 20 minutes and decides to come home. When he gets back, here's the conversation:

Me: Boy that was a quick breakfast! Where did you guys go?

Him: We didn't go.

Me: Why not?

Him: Relates the story above

Me: So...why didn't you go up and knock on the door?

Him: I don't like to knock on someone's door without permission.

Me: Permission? Since when do you need permssion to knock on someone's door, especially if they are expecting you?

Him: [Deer in the headlights look]

 

[Basil]

A modest proposal:

If we don't like texting (or whatever) - don't do it.

Then ignore those who do. Tried it - it worked.

Easy, but pointless, to get worked up about what others do - unless it's hurting someone.

The 24/7 communication systems we have today are fantastic tools. But I wonder if using them 24/7 for often useless messages just means we're lonelier than we think.

Onward through the fog.
Tom

I like that.