As a kid...I learned how to use computers and was usually able to keep up pretty well whatever there was in the fun-filled world of technology. I always considered myself pretty tech-savvy.
The backpedaling began after I got home from my 18 month mission for my church. When I left for my mission...everybody had computers, but not very many people had one of those fancy "modems" and I don't know if I even knew the phrase "internet connection." By the time I got back...everybody had internet access and the new way to communicate was through email. I got email figured out pretty easy and learned a few basics of internet surfing, etc. It was pretty easy to catch up on that one.
Next came the cell phone craze. Now, cell phones had been around for a while before we got into the size of cell phone that you could actually carry in your pocket. I well remember my mom getting the old brick style cell phone and then a little later the first Morotola flip phone. We thought it was pretty cool. But most people didn't have cell phones at that point. Certainly a teenager would never have a need for a cell phone. Aren't cell phones pretty much standard issue for teens today?Now we are living in the age of technology out of control. Not only do we have to email & be constantly accessible by cell phone to communicate...we have to Blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc., etc. I feel like I have many of those mediums figured out (still haven't gotten into Twitter...don't know if I want to...just one more thing to do!). But the one thing I am still no good at is...text messaging. Unfortunately...if you want to communicate with anyone under the age of 25 (am I overestimating?) you have to text them. They will not actually answer the cell phone if it rings...and they won't return your message if you leave a mere voice message. No, my friends the only way to converse with them is to text. I do know how to text...but it takes me eons to type in and send one message(yes, even with predictive text, etc.)! Am I ever going to catch up on this one?
I wonder if I have at last entered the "Oh-you-kids-with-all-your-gadgets" phase of life.
Texting...discuss...
15 comments:
I refuse to text unless an emergency warrants it. And I blame texting for the lack of grammar I find everywhere. My biggest pet peeves? Not capitalizing the beginnings of sentences (or proper nouns), using too many exclamation points (after every sentence! And when they are excited, they use more than one!! Or even more!!! and it's annoying!! And drives me insane!!!! Stop SHOUTING AT ME!!!), and spelling errors.
Drives me crazy. Simply crazy. Worst part? It isn't just children making these mistakes --it's adults, too. And nothing screams "I have no concept of how to speak and write" than lousy writing, right? Go figure.
I'm so trying to figure out twitter. I joined Facebook... lost interest in a few days. I get the blog thing though!
I grew up in the techno craze age. I was in high school when cell phone's started to become normal for every teenager. I didn't get my own until Christmas of my Sr. year in high school. When I have a simple question to ask, I text. When I'm busy but need to communicate something short, I text. It's easy and wonderful. But I am driven crazy by those teenagers who text and text and text, and your trying to talk to them, text, trying to teach them in church, text. I'm not a texting crazy, but I do love the invention.
Texting is kind of crazy and out of control with teens these days. I have to say that I did text, every once in a while, with my boyfriend and then fiance (now hubby) who was across the country. It was an easy way to say, "Are you home yet?", or "Just thinking about you" :). We didn't really use it to have a conversation, though. And I never got very fast at it.
I really do believe that teens have a hard time having real conversations because they are so used to texting.
One time I was with my SIL (she was a freshman in college at the time-last year). She was trying to figure out what one of her friends was doing that night and if they were getting together with other people, or whatever. But they were just sending text messages and it took them 10 messages to figure out what they were really trying to do. I even asked her in the middle of it all if it wouldn't just be easier to call him instead! I'm sure it would be, but they kept going! :) So silly.
What I think is crazy, is how they're in the same room, and texting each other! I suppose they're saying things they don't want us to hear, but it still seems nuts to me.
I finally got a phone that texts easily, and now I love to text husband "get me Innout on way home from High Council meeting" (last night), or to my sister (today): "Read reviews of Duchess movie and all are very bad. Want 2 go see it Sat. pm?". Is fun.
I remember I would take my parents' Motorola flip phone out with me at night, and sometimes if I pulled up next to cute boys in cars, I would flip it open haughtily and pretend to talk on it, just to look cool. But I wouldn't REALLY talk on it, cause the minutes were pricey, and it was only for emergencies.
I like to text my husband during the day. He's in school and it's hard to know when I can call him without interrupting. So I just text and say "Just thinking about you!" or "Hope you're having a good day." or "I love you". That's the extent of my texting. I love it for that, but it is annoying when people want to carry on a conversation through text. It drives me crazy! I usually just end up calling them after a couple of texts.
I am not a fan of texting. Do I text? Sure--mainly to my brothers and sisters when I have a quick question. My younger sister, (Sr. in HS this year), made a goal to call people instead of texting them. Isn't it generally much simpler to call than to type out a message?
My personal opinion is that texting is just another way to disconnect us from each other. It isolates us and makes us think that no one really understands what we're doing. Based on President Eyring's talk in the Ensign this month, texting certainly doesn't stand to unify us very well.
My friend's niece, upon hearing that she did not know how to text, said,
"Why do you even have a phone?!!"
Gee Great Leslie, now I feel really old, not only do I not know what twitter is.. I never even HEARD of it! Good grief I even have a teenager!
Okay. For arguments sake, let's just assume I'm older than EVERYONE because I graduated in.....well, no matter. But to listen to kids/teenagers etc. not know what a typewriter, a phone that doesn't come out of the wall, and it dials?? What's that?! It's a funny thing really at how FAST this teckky stuff has come about. Does that mean we are in the last days for sure now? Yikes!
What I love most about blogging, is that I get to keep my typing skills up and still learn something new about all this practically on a daily basis. I want to learn digital scrapbooking. That's my next project. Right after mastering the camera. Not digital per se. Just in my whole life I have never been a camera person. And now with this new TECKKY camera I bought, I'm learning that. And I will. Just as soon as I find that pesky ole'instruction booklet. :(
I don't text at all. People used to send me texts and I would get charged for it and it would make me mad so I called our cell phone company and had them block ALL text messages. 20 cents per received text adds up! I can see why some people like it though. You can be in public and not expose your whole conversation for everyone to hear.
Texting is not for me, but I do get on Facebook so I can chat with my 3 younger sisters who are all in college.
Ok... this totally made me laugh. I must admit, I am in the above mentioned age group. And I must also admit, I am a proud member of the above mentioned text messaging group.
I will gladly have a text conversation any day over a real conversation. I like that you get a second to stop and think about what you'll say before saying something stupid. What I can't help but wonder though is how this is affecting my social skills. I sometimes worry that the more I text, the worse my real-life conversation skills probably get. :)
I also think it's funny that the phones just keep getting smaller and smaller, but that doesn't stop us. We're all going to have terrible thumb arthiris by the time we're only 30 due to years of rapid texting on phones the size of thimbles. Small thimbles.
Im not a Mom, a Father or anyone other then that whom grew up in the Technology Generation. I am 24 years old and felt the pinch of technology completely twist moderization into new shifting situations. "Stay calm," is all ads pretty much said, waiting will let you get yesterdays things at cheap costs when its near obsolete and dead.
I had a cell phone when I was entering high school, the Motorola StarTrac, or whatever it was called. That was the new age flip phone, yet few but seemingly alot of people I went to school with had a StarTrac Flip phone supposed to replicate (or thought of) off Star Trek tricorder(I'd like to thank my Treky Mom, whom bought it.) Then, Verizon Wireless I believe wasn't existant.
Anyways back on course, being on the edge of Tech and Gadgets constantally left me to realise these days, its insane now. The Playstation from Sony came out, I had it and that industry is in the same delimeia as is most industries of tech and gadgets, an over boom of consumer needs....
Texting wasn't available then in my days of cell phone birth, but later it came and it was an instant hit. Now, its SMS Picture messaging and videoshare. Texting while in the same room while chuckling under breath....
Things got smaller, faster and simple. Conversations can be made with simple inputs now rather then full words. BRB TTYL C U 2MARO ect ect. But with the simple people define it in near impossible to understand definitions on wikipedia. And theres another matter of Technology, the internet. Its what joins social order now even to its roots. Walk downtown and tell me who doesn't have a Facebook or MySpace. Walk downtown and tell me who doesn't have a cell phone. Walk downtown and tell me you don't....
Its a crazy world we live in, and the gadgets of tommorrow will be obsolete yesterday all while time seemed to have just passed under our thumbs at the keyboard and cell phone.
iRave www.myspace.com/srinac
Post a Comment