Read My Lips: No More Texts!

To all my dear wonderful friends who love to communicate with me only by text messaging,

I write to you to inform you that I have given up that mode of communication for the New Year (easier than going on a diet/workout regimen/marathon training). I apologize if you have texted me lately and I have not responded. I apologize in advance if you will text me and I will not respond. My reasons are found in the body of this letter. Thank you for reading.

I understand that text messaging can be:
Fun
Cute
Sexy
Charming
Convenient
Good to use when you are in a loud place and can’t hear the phone
Great to use when you are in a group at dinner and want to talk with the person across from you about the person next to you
Something to do when your dinner date gets up and goes to the restroom
Something to do when you are bored in a meeting/passenger in a car/in the office/in a park/at a bar
Something to do when you are in need of conducting banter with someone because you are lonely
Something to do when you are waiting for someone to show up at your meeting place so you look busy
Last but not least (and please forgive me if I have left off any other reasons to use text messaging) – A really great way to AVOID actually SPEAKING with the person you are contacting

Ok, ALL super reasons to use this advanced data transport method (also know as Short Message Service or SMS). And obviously the entire world thinks so because text messaging has reached an all time high - in the billions per month. However, when I opened up my latest Verizon Wireless bill, I was less than pleased with the dollar number staring back at me. (Let’s just say it was over $300) Then I went back to months and months prior, each one getting larger and larger. I noticed that I was getting killed KILLED on Data i.e. Text Messaging. You pay for each incoming and for each outgoing. I immediately called Verizon Wireless, who immediately obliged me and changed my plan to “all you can eat/text” for $10/month – but the catch is of course, only with those who are on the same network.

I took this information and pondered in my heart and in my checkbook and then deeper. I have been getting very frustrated with the whole process of having to respond to people by way of texting. Not that I don’t want these people to get in touch with me, they have my phone number for a reason. I really just wish people would pick up the phone. OR, they can email me. I am happy to do that too. I have a blackberry and a phone and a voice and ears. And this is ironic coming from me. I used to be the Queen of Text Messaging. However, after years of thumbing through conversations I decided the texting thing is a pain for me for several reasons:

My predictive text never gets the words correct to the sentence I want to create. For instance – I want to write: "I am home now." What will appear is: "I am good now." I want to write. "I did not go out last night." What will appear is: "I did not in out last might." You get my drift. I for one do not have the patience to go back and search and type on that little phone every little letter hunt and peck style. I can type easily on a keyboard or on the blackberry, just not on the phone.

I can be a verbose person when it comes to writing. I find it challenging to be cryptic. And when someone writes: "What did you do last night?" Easy for THEM to write, but they expect me to write in text, letter by letter, an account of everything I did? Uh uh.

I like having phone conversations. You can hear the tone in a person's voice, you get the full message in 1/10th of the time it takes to write. And you can get on and off the phone quickly, if you say something like: "Oops, I have got to take this call." Done. Simple.

And email - c'mon. That is an easy one. That was here way before the advent of the text messaging craze. We have blackberry's and Treo's now, so it is possible to get in touch with most people through that form of messaging. It just doesn't cost per email and the messagings can be more explicit and understood.

So, call me old-fashioned, call me impatient, call me not technologically of this era (I don’t have an iPod, satellite radio, nor do I have nor have I ever owned a Razor, Krazor, Chocolate, Pearl, Sidekick, or any of those fancy little things that for some reason, remind me of Paris Hilton), call me all of the above. Just don’t text it to me.

Thoughts on text messaging positive or negative? Post a comment!