Several years ago I realized the time had come. I knew I had to embrace the fine art of "texting." Reaching this decision, I turned to Bryan C. as we we left a client meeting. On the elevator ride down, I sucked it up and asked him to show me the ropes. After all, we had twenty two floors to go and being a quick study, I figured I had the time. When we reached the parking garage, I knew it was I who was late to the party.
Many people have a point of view on texting, even Emily Post, or her institute anyway. If you aren't familiar with Miss Post, she was born in 1872 and died in 1960. She was a beloved American author, novelist, and socialite, famous for writing about etiquette. The institute named after her continues to flourish and has published "Texting Manner Tips." Who knew? Thirteen do's and don'ts to be exact. If you want to grand master you must to do your homework and learn a new language. I have a hard enough time with passwords...IMHO – In my humble opinion, TTYL – Talk to you later, CYA – See ya, OIC – Oh I see...
Taking a deeper look into texting, I conducted an ad hoc survey. Staring me in the face I discovered a common thread among friends of mine who text like they are writing a short story... Kids. And age doesn't matter. Kids have us trained like rats in a lab. If we want to talk to our kids, we talk via text. Relationships, no matter the age, have become a series of strokes and emojis. When I was growing up, my grandparents had a "party line." I suppose in today's terms, a party line would be considered a group text chat.
Let me get to the point. I strongly dislike carrying on a conversation via texting for so many reason. If I wanted to read a novel, I would visit the library. Kathy F. has given me hope however. Not everyone has gone to the dark side. Out of the blue, she called me one morning to "chit chat" and catch up. I felt like a kid again. What, someone is calling me to just say hi?
You know when it comes to communicating with our own parents, or our kids that live far away, we pick up our cellphone and call. We want to hear their voice and tell them we love them. Next time I start to send a text to a friend, I am going to call instead. I know how I felt when Kathy F. called me...I felt special.
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