Text Messaging

Ridryder911 said:
Sorry, I don't get it. Why would anyone want to waste the time of text messaging, when one could just call or even ask in person? I have seen people sitting side by side texting..? It makes NO sense!.. seriously.
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Because it's a subtle form of communication that you can use to send nice, simple "thinking of you" messages during work, or in other settings where a phone call isn't appropriate. I'm certainly not going to have deep or lengthy conversations via texting, but it's always nice to get simple "Hi, hope all is going well" messages during work, etc.
 
BossyCow said:
Text messaging is a form of connection and communication. Firetender, can you not 'be in the moment' while texting? Be fully present in the texting! Text with awareness!
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Sure, if I want my relationship in the moment to be with a hand-held device and digits on a screen.

The fact of the matter is that our life-spans are moving into 90 years. Yet, with all these substitutes for real human interactions and our environment, we're not really "living" much longer than when life expectancy was below 40.
 
I think its a matter of perception. While the vehicle for communication is slighty different I think the technology can keep you more in touch with each other. I'm not texting with my phone.. I'm texting to a person.

I have seen my sons maintain more connections with classmates all over the US after H.S. graduation than I was able to do. While some of the connection may be superficial and some of the texting is out of line, I believe that anything that allows us to connect with each other and share minutes of our day, events in our lives, and the simple message that I'm thinking of you and you are a part of my day today is a positive thing. It all depends on intent.
 
Just dug up last months bill. Grandma is texting more than me!!
 
Call me a dinosaur if you must but I can't be bothered to figure out how to read a text let alone send one. I do well to use a full size keyboard with two or three fingers let alone fart around with a phone keypad. My phone is for talking to people. I don't use it for music, or surfing the web, or taking pictures. Just talking.

If you call and I don't answer, a) I didn't get the call,(it happens), b) I saw your # and don't want to talk to you, c) I'm busy, I'll call you back later, if I remember. If its really, really important you'll call back. My cell phone is for MY convience, not everyone elses.
 
Fla. county looks into 911 text message system

http://www.ems1.com/ems-products/co...Fla-county-looks-into-911-text-message-system

By Zac Anderson
Sarasota Herald-Tribune

SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — The burglar is inside your house, rummaging around in the next room. Does he have a weapon? Your heart beats fast.

You hide in the closet with the telephone, but you are afraid of being overheard.

"Help!" you type into the cell phone. "My house is being burglarized!!!!"

This situation would be impossible today because most 911 systems across the country cannot accept emergency text messages, pictures or video.

But the technology should be available within the next few years, and Sarasota County is preparing to update the local 911 system when a reliable alternative becomes available.
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firetender said:
The whole cell-phone/text messaging/Blackberry whateveritis is of the Devil.

In this world we are bombarded every moment with DATA being sent by elsewhere -- keeping us away from our experience of our immediate environment IN THE MOMENT. To add heaps of this INFOCRAP that we then inflict on each other as a substitute for REAL connection will, eventually, drive us into a dependent loneliness that will drive us away from the simple art of being with another human being.

When I walk down the street and see person after person blabbing away on their cells or tripping as they type I realize that there is little chance for us to connect as human beings, for the Digitizer is not present in the same world I am.

A good 80% of what we treat as medics is driven by the dissociation that is felt between the individual and the other humans around him/her: A loss of personal connection to others and the environment.

I'd love you, at the end of your day, to print out the text messages you've received and sent and then tell me where you were and what was happening around you, who you were with and how you were affected by those moments of your life.

Then, tell me about the world you were living in. Were you living in time, or just killing it, and with it the days of your life?

Love,
Firetender
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This post reminded me of the Spider (played by Henry Rollins) in the movie Johnny Mnemonic.
 
I use a Samsung Blackjack (also known as a windows based blackberry knockoff). I don't "text" much... I occasionally use it in sending messages to friends when I can't talk for some reason, but I have a few seconds to send a text. I use my QWERTY keyboard for mobile email all the time. Until I got my current job - where I sit with my laptop in WiFi all day until we get a call, I would often go 2-3 days without logging into a computer where I could check my email (because it is blocked at my old work for security purposes). I don't reply to a lot of emails by phone... but I read them and delete them if appropriate.
 
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