A Grumpy Old Goat’s Rant on Texting

I recently saw an interview with former President Bill Clinton. During the course of the interview he addressed the subject of texting. The former President cited some recent statistics which showed that on average a young person in this country sends out around 80 text messages a day.

One would assume that for each message sent one is received so this comes to a total of 160 text messages in a day either being received or sent. Assuming the average young person gets his or her eight hours of sleep this comes to around 10 text messages an hour in a given day.

The former President was deeply distressed by these statistics saying that he feared that young people were no longer able to “enjoy the moment” and appreciate and be a part of what was going on where they are and who they are with at a given time. Mr. Clinton raises a valid point. Texting does seem to be unhealthy phenomenon in our society.

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Like the former President, I too have observed many persons, both young, middle aged and even older that cannot enjoy the moment because of their obsession with receiving and sending text messages. I often have sat near someone at a movie, concert or sporting event and watched them constantly sending text messages throughout the entire event. The price of admission is wasted on these folks as they cannot possibly be engaged in the event due to their mindless texting.

I have also seen conversations interrupted and discussions disturbed because of the intrusion of text messages. All too often text messages are treated as revelations from on high when they are little more than mindless drivel. Though silent, text messages can be very intrusive.

I am not anti-technology. I know that texting does have a place in the various means of communication at our disposal. There are times that texting can be beneficial. Text messages can be a source of delivering important messages and communication when a phone call is impractical and inconvenient.

They are also good for sending information in written form when accuracy is important. I will admit that there are times that sending text messages can be a good thing. I even send a couple of texts a day. Yet, on the whole, texting, it seems, does more harm to our society than it does good.

We of course have seen the danger of texting and driving. We really shouldn’t have needed a law to prevent such behavior. Simple logic should tell anyone that one cannot be a safe driver while texting.

Yet, after numerous accidents and deaths on our highways this practice has been made illegal. Sadly, surveys have shown that such laws have not reduced this dangerous behavior. It seems we can not legislate common sense.

Texting is also a very inefficient way of communicating. Simple questions that could be handled in a 30-second phone conversation can require several minutes of exchanging texts thus wasting time and reducing productivity.

Texting can also be a counter productive way of communicating. It is easy for hurt feelings to bubble to the surface and disagreements to arise over misunderstood text messages. The trouble with text messages is that one cannot hear voice inflections or observe facial expressions. These are important aspects of communication. Thus it is easy for a text message to be improperly interpreted by the recipient leading to needless and useless conflict.

Though it is a written form of communication, texting is actually harmful to effective written communication. With its numerous abbreviations and acronyms, texting hinders the ability to write effectively. “R u going 2 the store” is not a grammatically correct sentence. There have been many reports of teachers reporting that the writing skills of their students have been diminished due to texting.

I know that texting is not going away. Once genies get out of the bottle they cannot be returned to the bottle. That said, manners and common sense would go a long way to making text messaging an effective way of communication rather than an annoying one.

I certainly am not qualified to write a column on etiquette or manners but I do have a fair amount of common sense so I would like to offer some common sense suggestions about texting. I don’t want to be hit by you when you are driving down the road sending text messages. Put the texting on hold when you’re behind the wheel.

If you are talking to me or with me and receive a text, the text can wait. When you take a text while talking to me or with me you are telling me that this text is more important than I am and that is rude. If you want to ask me something, or tell me something call me if possible. More than likely I would love to hear your voice.

Put the darn phone up for a while and enjoy the moment. There are real live people around us much of the time. Enjoy them. Be where you are; there is plenty of time later on to be some where else.

Do I sound like a grumpy old goat? Maybe so, but I would be a lot less grumpy if there was a lot less texting.