Well, yes, I text. I’m sort of the old lady champ of it. Our girls are daddy’s girls and they kept sending Bill pictures and text messages (lately we’ve been getting all kinds of pictures of Jessie’s dog, a miniature dachsund that I don’t really care for that much, I have to fake my affection). My sister’s granddaughter had over 24,000 text messages one month! And he didn’t know how to respond. So I got him a texting phone for Christmas and the first month he went over the 200 and now he has unlimited. We text each other about 20 times a day and that might be a modest estimate. Every once in awhile I get perturbed and tell him off in a long series of texts which confuses him.

I recommend text messaging as a great way to get teenagers to talk to you. Although…my girls prefer that I call them. I think they’re so behind the times. I don’t have time to call anymore! Plus I talk all day on the phone to people who tell me their life stories and by the time I get home, I don’t want to hear another voice.

A friend isn’t speaking to me any longer because she left a message on my phone to call her and I did, but she didn’t answer and I said I don’t talk on the phone, text me or email me and I gave her my email address. Sheesh people are so touchy.

I don’t text and I will not pay for it. I think the format (140 character limit) encourages the development of poor communication skills. Nothing is so important to interrupt anyone’s life if it can be communicated in 140 characters. Save it all for later and actually share a real conversation with someone.

It’s 160, Paul. A famous writer once wrote his friend a long letter, including the apology “sorry for the length–I didn’t have time to make it shorter.” Learning to be succinct is a good skill. Okay, fine, it’s not working in my case.

Bill and I actually communicate more now than we ever did before.

I’m texting Sunshine in church as we speak. My son-in-law and I often text each other.

I hope this mode of communication is outmoded by the time my kids are teens. Texting has its place, but the volume described is ridiculous, and very likely retarding interpersonal skills growth.

“very likely retarding interpersonal skills growth”

Wrong. Kids talk more now than they ever did before. My kids have hundreds of times better communication skills than I did at their age because they text. That means they’re always communicating. If they do it poorly or obnoxiously they are instantly called on it by their peers. Kids today may be the best and most experienced communicators in the history of the world. Anyone who suggests otherwise doesn’t know what they’re talking about. You think anyone in history sent as many letters in their entire lives as kids text now in a single day? Never. You think email is better? Too slow. Most kids today are having constant instantanneous conversations with several friends at once. It’s a constant flow of communication. How is that not interpersonal?

If you don’t text, you’re just not talking. Not talking is not now, and has never been, a viable option.

Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words. He accepted the challenge and wrote:

For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.

It is a powerful piece of writing and clearly proves that you don’t have to go on and on to communicate something.

I do think that there are negatives to texting so I am out in front of that for my daughter. We talk alot about what kind of texting is appropriate. We have rules about how not to be rude to rl people around you by texting, etc. She needs guidance on all kinds of social skills and communication skills including texting, phone, email, talking to adults, talking to peers, talking to teachers/leaders, talking to strangers, etc.
I’m quite sure I spend more time teaching my daughter about communicating with others than my parents did teaching me. I am also quite sure that my daughter is far better at communicating than I was at her age.

Left Field, I don’t know what the rules are where you’re at, but in my kids’ schools, if a cell phone is even out in a classroom it is gone and can only be picked up by a parent. Kids do not text during class. It’s just not even remotely possible. Nor are they allowed to text during church services or classes. My kids don’t text while driving and of course there are laws against that in many states now, so most people understand it’s not allowed. I hear a lot of bellyaching about the horrors of teens and texting, but most of those things are just not part of the current reality. As with all technology, you just have to set rules and enforce them. No technology is good if it’s used constantly.

Funny you should mention the microwave. There were many that decried it’s use as the bane of civilization in the 70s. Nowadays, we wouldn’t have a house without one, and we don’t think twice about it.

MCQ, I’m talking about college students. I have it in my syllabus that texting is not permitted. No matter what I do, they still try everything they can to get away with it. The stupid thing is, they actually think they’re being subtle when sit staring intently in the vicinity of their genitalia with both hands in their lap, as if masturbating.

I don’t recall hearing in the 70s that microwaves were the “bane of civilization.” My family had one in the early 70s. But my point still stands. I can go an hour without using a microwave. I can go an hour without using a telephone, a computer, a postage stamp, semaphore, smoke signals, or homing pigeons to communicate with someone who isn’t in the room. Students can damn well shut off their cell phones for an hour in class and concentrate on learning something rather than gossiping with their friends.

i text too… but i prefer emailing to everything else there is. i can be quite gregarious and as such have an expansive list of acquaintances. but having said that, i like some level of privacy. i hardly make phone calls unless it’s to my parents and husband. i text my sister because she hardly reads her emails… my brother too. i prefer emailing to talking on the phone because i get to take charge of when i want to talk to a person. i get to reply at my own leisure and when it’s convenient for me. texting somehow robs me of that pleasure so i limit it to situations where i really have to. but of course, there are no limits when it comes to immediate family.

i’m still flabbergasted at people that can send about 1000 texts and more! i fail to imagine how that person functions normally.

Having never sent a text, I am glad to hear a little passionate advocacy to provide a sense of what I’m missing. About ten years ago when e-mail had become mainstream for ordinary, non-technical people, I started having the experience of trying to provide information to someone during a face-to-face encounter, and then being asked to e-mail it to them instead. It was a bit frustrating, but it is necessary to communicate with each in his or her own language if you want all families to know that cub scout pack meeting next week will be at the park instead of at the church.

Two weeks ago I saw this happen again in an interaction between a cub scout den leader and a parent who missed a message. “I sent out an e-mail to everyone, and I left something on your voicemail.” “Text me. You have to text me; that’s the only way I get anything.”

3 of my 4 kids have cellphones so we, of course, have an unlimited texting plan. (I refuse to get a second job to pay for texts.)I travel alot between Philadelphia and DC via train and when I’m traveling I can have text conversations with all three kids at the same time. Try doing that with all three sitting the same room! I can get caught up, answer questions, ask questions and engage all three via texting. When I get home we can discuss and do other things. In fact, notwithstanding the school ban on cellphone use during class, I frequently get texts from my kids during the day with questions or reminders about stuff. (I don’t match text times with their school schedules to confirm the texts were sent in between classes or at lunch. As long as their grades are good, I don’t really care.) Thanks to texting I am able to stay in much more contact with my kids-in real time-than my parents were able to with me. It’s not even close.

When my kids are out, I can shoot them a text and ask if they’re ok, having fun, safe, bored, cold etc. Thanks to their addiction to texting and the relative privacy of texting, I’m almost guaranteed to get a fast, honest response.

I’m amused by all the drama about kids and texting. I had to chuckle at all the references to texting in the last GC. To the kids, it probably sounds like old people who are just borderline out of touch with how the world really is, or are actually out of touch with things.

If you are blessed to work with the youth, you better adapt and learn to text b/c I don’t see it going away anytime soon. It’s how they communicate.

1. annegb – wow Anne – you are very cutting edge with technology – good for you.

2. jks – that seems like a reasonable number and more in line with how I use texting

6. queuno – is that suppose to make me feel better?

7. Jana H – I tend to agree with you, but it will be outmoded by some other esoteric type of communicating.

8. MCQ – My data is anecdotal from my interactions with teens in Church and elsewhere. I would agree that texting is a good form of communication for some reasons, however, it should not be one’s primary form of communication which I think it is for some kids.

11. jks good advice and I love the six word example.

14. PPP – Nice response – that says it all!

Just curious…why do you preface him with “my adopted son”? It didn’t have anything to do with the story…do you always refer to him that way?

Hm. I thought you meant primary as in the way you communicate when not in the same room. Obviously, when in the same room, you don’t text (although, I have to say that I’ve seen my kids do that at parties).

Texting does not get in the way of having “deep” relationships. It actually deepens relationships because you are communicating more often. There is a blog I have read where a woman has posted the funny things she and her husband have texted each other throughout the day during work hours. Very funny stuff. You can see how it’s possible to have a running conversation throughout the day without really interrupting work. That’s pretty awesome.

My Relief Society president and I text each other all the time, discussing spiritual issues and the interpretation of scripture–oh and we had a long talk about the decision of the book club to read Sarah Palin’s book. She and I have a strange relationship–I like her but I hate being her project and feel she’s pretty much judged and condemned me. I don’t shorten or misspell words.

Bill and I check in with each other all day. If he called me that many times, it would drive me crazy. Texting has, in that way, enriched our relationship. And we’re old fogeys!

I think anything can be done to excess–think of people who spend hours on the phone! And I suspect that when the phone was first invented there were those condemning it and saying people should talk face to face, that it would destroy human interactions.

Another thing that’s really great about texting that I see on my job is how easy it is to discipline kids with it. Grades are low? Remove their texting for 24 hours. Boy it’s a great wake up call. It’s something you can do without even getting mad. Great 100-zero communication.

Like I said, we tend to excess and I suspect that’s the objection. I find myself pretty much attached to my phone these days. But boy, texting, that’s the bomb.

I don’t think texting should be a problem with regards to communication, it’s just the way we humans evolve over time due to cultural and technological changes. It all depends which side of the coins we are looking at it from.

As long as it’s not overdone to the extent that it interrupts your everyday work, then it should be fine. Just my humble 2 cents