Why I Don't Use Text Messaging
That’s right - I am a 21-year old Software Engineering major who doesn’t use text messaging. Not only that, but it’s disabled entirely on my phone, so I don’t receive texts either.
Why, you ask? Having anticipated your potential question and bated you into asking it, I have kindly provided answers below.
Your whole feces lights up when she’s in the room
I have a flip-phone. You know, those things that were pretty standard back in 2007, when I got it? Typing letters on a numeric keypad is, well, painful. Even touchscreen virtual keyboards aren’t that great. I’m holding out for a phone with a qwerty hardware keyboard.
Do one thing and do it well
Phones make and receive phone calls. Computers browse the web, play games, take pictures, play music, and find directions. I have a phone - you have a portable computer. Recognize that, although they share superficial similarities, they are quite different devices.
Alright, poop coming out
In this day and age, people tend to be much more connected to each other than previously. Sure, it leads to increased dorama among teens. Yes, there are people who break up via text message. What really bothers me, though, is that people tend to not ever really be anywhere.
Just take a stroll around town, particularly a college town like SLO. 8 people at dinner, 3 with their heads in their phones. 30 students in a class, 12 browsing Facebook.
As easily-distracted as I am, I need as much help as I can get paying attention. One of my goals is to fill everyone with the assurance that if they’re talking to me, I’m listening; texting will only be yet another thing for me to fight.
Because that leads to fully-formed ideas
As a method of communication becomes easier, the overall quality of messages sent tends to drop. If someone writes you a letter (like, on paper, and sent through the non-electronic mailing system), they probably took some time to do so. Emails are a lot less formal, but still often have sentences and paragraphs. By the time we progress down through mailing lists and forums to Twitter, Facebook statuses, instant messaging, text messaging, and IRC, the mean quality of ideas being communicated is low enough to despair anyone concerned with the future of the human race.
Now, don’t get me wrong - I have a Google Talk account, and you can frequently find me on the Freenode and Rizon IRC networks. It’s just that the latter, in particular, fulfills my need for brain-dead thought-vomiting - no need to share any of that with people with whom I can have actual conversations.
Now, am I just a grumpy prematurely-old man? Probably.
