I am notoriously slow to embrace new technology. In fact, most of my technological advancement has been the result of someone dragging me. I blog and Facebook because Jenny nagged me until I broke down. The only reason I even have a cell phone is because Mr. Clairol bought me one and put me on his plan when we got serious. I drove a clunker and thinking about me stranded somewhere made him twitchy. When he wanted to upgrade me to a Blackberry, I refused. My little slider is just fine, does what I need, doesn't cost a fortune.
But there is an inexorable draw into texting that is becoming harder and harder to fight. Some of my friends are much younger than me and texting is common for them. They prefer it to phone calls and for a couple, it is the only way to get a hold of them. That definitely is a factor. But when you consider that I am the parent of a teenager? Well, hell, it's a minor miracle that I'm not texting already.
Drama Queen got a fancy-dancy new phone for her 8th grade graduation, courtesy of her ridiculously over-indulgent grandparents. I'd love to rant about this, but I am staring at the Wii they bought me for Christmas. The phone has a slide out keyboard for easy texting and the minute I saw it, I added unlimited texting to her cell plan. She's done really well, limiting herself to the 200 texts a month that she was allotted, but none of us realized you get charged for the incoming texts as well. Can you say "bend over, sucker?" And with a new phone that has a qwerty keyboard? Forget it, fool. It's easier now. It's cooler. Unlimited texting is pretty much inevitable.
What I didn't realize is that I would need unlimited texting as well. I don't text. The whole "R U srus", no punctuation thing drives me batshit. I am an English teacher in my heart of hearts, so typing R for are makes me want shrivel up and die. Not to mention how tedious it is. It takes me five frickin' minutes to type in "yes." But this communication is becoming second nature to daughter number one, so Mom needs to get with the program. Like, yesterday.
We ran over to Barnes and Noble this morning and I was sitting, sipping my iced coffee, perusing the new Stephanie Plum when my phone goes off and I see I have a text from my daughter. Who is in the store. Maybe three or four aisles over. What the ever-loving hell? But I responded, and not with a pithy, "WTF, gt ur ass ovr hr n tlk 2 me." No, I succumbed and four exchanges later, I realized that the extra ten dollars for unlimited texts across all of our plans was going to save me money in the long run.
God help us all, but I am officially a texter. I'm pretty sure this is one of the signs fortold in Revelation.
12 comments:
You and I are so much alike. When I text (or use Twatter), I always want to spell everything correctly (or at least attempt to). I also try to use correct punctuation. By the time I'm halfway through my text (I don't have a keyboard), I'm so frustrated I just call the person. Which is what I should have done in the first place.
XOXOXOXO
I am a texter! I hate phone calls, thank you working in a call center, but I don't abbreviate my words when I text. I actually write things out properly and if I can't fit what I need to say in my 160 character limit, I split it into multiple posts.
(with the exception of things like LOL or OMFG...)
Yeah, I'm a texter with a qwerty keyboard. Sigh. What's bad is that I text more than my 15 year old who rarely texts. Back when texting first started, it was the only way hubby & I could communicate during the day. He couldn't call me and I couldn't email him so we would text.
I do not abbreviate and I always use punctuation. I might not always capitalize, however.
YAY! I can text and bug you now! I don't use abbreviations, I don't get half of them. But I also have a fancy keyboard, so it's easier. Upgrade and join in, you'll find the love!
I very rarely use textese, which drives my teen crazy, but I am texter. Unless I have a lot to say, then I call you. But flirting via texting can be fun. Especially in boring meetings...lol.
But it's also nice when I need to tell the teenager something and she's in school. I send her a text, and she gets it as soon as school's over.
I despise texting. I don't do it, for all of the reasons you mentioned.
I also don't have Wii, an iPod, Nintendo, XBox, or well....anything, and I don't do Facebook or MySpace.
I'm really perfectly fine with this, because I can barely find time to do stuff I HAVE to do, like weed my garden, and truthfully, I'd rather read a book or take a nap.
I do fully expect that when my kids become teenagers, I will be dragged, kicking and screaming, into modern technology, but for now, I'm content to be a dinosaur.
Say it isn't so! I'm resisting the whole text thing, in the hopes that by the time my kids are old enough for such stuff, words spelled out will be cool again. Do kids these days say "Cool"? I think "cool" nowadays means, "I acknowledge that I heard you" and nothing more.
Srsly? Y wd u spl evrthing? 2 mny ltrs 2 typ! Jst gt the pt acrs.
Miss Ginger, your comment just gave my inner English teacher an aneurysm.
oh honey...youa re going to LOVE umlimited texting! My youngest had 1587 texts last month alone. so that comes in handy, ya know?
and when I text, I spell out everything...I hate all that ttyl, r u L8? can't stand that stuff!!!
Can I get a whut-whut!!!!
i love texting... however i too, like beth, likes to spell out the whole word.
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