Remember the days when the family gathered around the table and people engaged in eye contact and conversation? Today's meals with adult children are likely to be interrupted with a buzzing occurring on the electronic device that is set on the table next to the water glass. The son, picks it up, averts eyes to device while continue to say "uh-huh" to me and then says, "Excuse, me I have to take care of this." My sons do not work 8 to 5, they work 24/7 tied to their employment by their smart phones and conduct business often with a text or a tweet.
I was waiting for some information from my son, Marc, and finally called him and asked for it.
His reply to me, "I already text it to you...didn't you get it?"
My reply to him, "You can text me until the cows come home, I will not get it because I do not text."
His reply to me, "Mom, you really should text."
So I went kicking and screaming into texting and discovered that, in truth, it is the most expedient way to get information to and from my adult children. It is their information highway! So when we were able to upgrade our phones, I opted for a phone with a QWERTY keyboard to assist my thumbs in their new task.
I am still not willing to invest in a data package for a smart phone but for $5 extra a month I can send or receive about 250 text messages. While texts do not provide the pleasure of hearing my loved ones voices, it does get the job done! I have tried to learn the coding to make the texts brief and though my teacher's soul cringes, I will use lower case and I will type a "u" for you. So when necessary I send brief texts using some Senior codes, like..."Had surgery today for my left cataract and got a Crystalens, not CBM (Covered By Medicare)" and if I get lost in the middle of a thought, I just type in the code FWIW (Forgot Where I Was). :-)
Jay has watched me texting periodically and has said, "I suppose I should learn how to do that." Jay opted to keep his flip phone which he has only used to find me in a store. In the past, if it rang he would hand it to me and say, "Here...answer this." But he too has decided he needs to get current so it was wonderful this weekend to watch him venture into this new world. It is all thanks to our grandson, Gabriel. Gabriel is 10 and he is using his mother's old phone to learn how to text. Friday night, the day after Gabriel and his parents left for a vacation in San Francisco, Jay's cell phone beeped. There was a little enveloped displayed on the screen. After figuring out how to open it, he saw displayed a message that said..."Good night, Grandpa Jay!"
He immediately found reply, placed his thumbs on his keys and typed a text back. So together, the two ends of the generation spectrum are learning to text.
Well congrats on learning how to text! It does come in handy. I just don't like it when people text really long messages that should actually be a phone call.
ReplyDeleteI, like you, went kicking and screaming into the text world. That being said, I resent texting as I believe we are creating generations of antisocial behavior. And spelling? They won't know how to do that either. When I see kids sitting next to each other and texting each other rather than engaging in conversation, it makes me furious. If I call on the cell phone to no avail and then text that same person, it's amazing how quickly the reply comes. Go figure! Why couldn't they just pick up the call??????? I realize that sometimes it is inconvenient, but if they are in a situation where they can't talk, they shouldn't be texting. How OLD do I sound?
ReplyDeleteThis really made me smile as oh so familiar, but we need to keep in touch with 21C technology or we will become old dinosaurs!!
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