To Text or Not to Text?

I am putting this in the general conspiracy forum because I believe it is a PART of a much larger conspiracy to dumb us down and disconnect us from eachother and ourselves.

I can't be the only one who has noticed lately that there is no such thing as genuine human interaction. If you would have asked me ten years ago if I wanted to invest some money in a revolutionary idea called 'texting' I would have told you that you're crazy. Who would want to send a message full of letters and words when you could just pick up the phone and call?

I mean, didn't we already invent something like that called.............THE TELEGRAPH??????? Isn't technology supposed to be moving us forward, not backward???

But here the hell it is and it looks as though it is here to stay.
I seriously have lost ALL of my friends to this phenomenon. It has taken hold of them like an opiate. It controlls their lives in every detail. I for one think nothing of leaving my cell phone in the other room or even leaving the house without it. I use it when I need to, other than that I have no use for the damned thing.

I am 36 yrs old and my friends are of similar age. They can be found all evening long with that 'oh so recognizable' 90 degree bend in their neck lost in thier own little world comprized of letters and numbers.

I am serious when I say that we can, and do, go out for a few drinks at the local watering hole and I spend the entire night virtually by myself left with no one to talk to. There they all sit with the 90 degree bend in their fat little necks, thumbs a blazin', smoke rising up off of the keypad, and I sit alone wondering what has become of us. Not the guys, I mean humanity.

But no worries right? Just excuse yourself from the table and go sit with some of the ladies at the other table. Not so fast Don Juan, they have the 90 goin'on too.

What these 'Thumb Bandits' don't realise is that in thier efforts to "stay connected" with friends and family they are disconnecting from humanity.

Oh, please don't get me started on our socially retarded friends I see driving down the road doing 75 in a 60 while texting!!! I swear I want to take their socially retarded thumbs and disconnect them from their socially retarded hands.

Which brings me to this.
Is it just me as my friends would have me believe? Am I really that old? They tell me to just relax and embrace the technology, which sounds to me the same as "relax, just sit back and let the heroine kick in. Embrace it man". I am sorry but I can't. I enjoy one on one interaction with LIVE PEOPLE!!!!!! But I have made a vow to at least try to get current if I can get enough people to call me crazy or old or both.

So what is it ATS?

To me it's no different than sitting in front of a computer monitor for hours on end.



FWIW, I don't text.

I believe that this apparent "phone conditioning" goes even deeper than what you've described with texting.

Your phone rings ... you answer it almost as a conditioned reflex ... WHY ??

reply to post by elevatedone


Well if that is true then that is sad.
I don't know about you but when I sit in front of a computer monitor I am giving my brain a cardio workout. I am learning and exposing myself to new ideas and philosophies. It does take alot of patience sometimes due to the necessary weeding out process but when it is all said and done I walk away from the monitor with knowledge that I didn't have before I sat down. EVERYTIME!!!

What do people walk away with after a good chat session?

I hear ya man!

I'm 22, have had a cell phone now for about 7 years, at first it was cooool, I could talk to my friends when ever and texting was nice cause it was quicker. BUT now I couldn't care less if I didn't own one of these attention owning handsets lol. I too see people in social setting whether it a bar, party, family get together etc... just typing away the whole time.

I definitely won't call you crazy!

My thing is kids of all ages now have cell phones, and whenever they get taken away, they lose them, or they fail it's like the kid lost thier grip on self control lol "NOOOOO I can't stay in touch with all my friends todaaaaay!" like the world is over, the best part is people my age act the same way.

What did people do back in the day when everyone didn't have cell phones to keep them occupied 24/7?

In my opinion they got in contact with themselves instead, learned things productive, went out got excersize however they did, TALKED to people face to face and again got to know themselves.

Now they come out with a new one every month, BAM this one is even better! You can put more games and applications on this one! Wapow this one can tell you where everyone is just incase theirs isn't connected to their palm like yours!

and your considered a hermit crab if your not constantly texting people back or answering your cell phone whenever it calls your name!

POW take that cell phone addicts, and isn't there quite a bit of info on how horrible these things are for you, something like ten years using a cell phone (obviously matters how much you use it) the damage is irreversable?

Don't get me wrong there have been plenty of times I was very thankful to have my cell phone and there are plenty of positive uses for it --- but that it's somewhat out of control in our society.

HA that's my 42 rupels.

Lots of people do it , man. It annoys the s#$t out of me.
How much of a point do you make with your friends about it?

My friends do it too.

What's weird is I was just thinking about this I just saw a chick doing it while walking down the street. She looked so strange doing it.


They DO disconnect from humanity that way.

reply to post by vita eternus


STAR!!!! You are absolutely correct!! My friends and family Look at me like I have a booger hanging out of my nose when my phone rings and I just keep on talking like I don't even hear it.

I always notice a hint of appreciation when they are in the middle of speaking and my phone rings.
I keep listening and they stop and say..."aren't you going to get that" to which I always reply "It isn't as important to me as what you are saying right now".

Thanks for bringing that one up.
What's funny is, I have trained (for lack of a better word) my wife to do the same. People who call get so mad because we never answer the phone because 9 times out of ten there is someone talking or something more important going on.

Originally posted by The Lord and Savior
reply to post by elevatedone

 

What do people walk away with after a good chat session?

Good question, I actually got a wife out of a good chat once

reply to post by dragonsmusic


Well, as of a couple of weeks ago I told them to count me out of the boys night out. I told them I am tired of sitting there watching you guys get drunk and send text messages all night. " Aww come on you homo, relax. Get with the times dude". is about all I get from them.

The straw that broke the camels back was when we were practicing some songs on our acustics and bongos and we literally could not get through an entire song without one of them stopping and "sending a quicky" and then picking up right where they left off, not missing a beat....LETERALLY!!! They actually have it down to a science.........some sort of art form!!!!AGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

reply to post by elevatedone


You'll be sorry someday.
Seriously though, Is there anything that is being texted that can't be wrapped up in a 30 sec phone conversation?????

Originally posted by The Lord and Savior
reply to post by dragonsmusic

 

Well, as of a couple of weeks ago I told them to count me out of the boys night out. I told them I am tired of sitting there watching you guys get drunk and send text messages all night. " Aww come on you homo, relax. Get with the times dude". is about all I get from them.

The straw that broke the camels back was when we were practicing some songs on our acustics and bongos and we literally could not get through an entire song without one of them stopping and "sending a quicky" and then picking up right where they left off, not missing a beat....LETERALLY!!! They actually have it down to a science.........some sort of art form!!!!AGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Texting while jamming?
No doubt you had to lay down the law on that one brother!
Sacrilege

I look at it as a way to destroy the attention span of people.

I know way too many people who will stop whatever it is they're doing, to see what their text message says and respond back.

The worst is when you're having a conversation with them and they get a text, so as you continue to talk, their mind is elsewhere.

I think it makes perfect sense if I were trying to make people more ignorant and less aware, kill their attention span.

If they don't have the mental capacity to speak in more than 140 character bursts, how could they ever debate something like health care, war, financial policy, etc?

It's brilliant in fact.



[edit on 18-12-2009 by ImaNutter]

Originally posted by ImaNutter


If they don't have the mental capacity to speak in more than 140 character bursts, how could they ever debate something like health care, war, financial policy, etc?


[edit on 18-12-2009 by ImaNutter]

Truer words were never spoken. This is truely a problem. There are things going on in this world and If It doesn't fit in a text message then it doesn't get discussed.

We used to do family movie nights all together. Me and one of my friends and his kids and my kids. All of us sitting down together watching a movie with the kiddos. AND TEXTING THE ENTIRE 'F'ing time!!!!!!!!!

I mean what in this world has happened to people? These people can't make it through a single song much less a two hour movie.

I secretly pray that we have a massive solar flare and ALL communications are wiped out. I picture a world full of people walking around like Zombies and then suddenly waking up and greeeting eachother in the streets with smiles on their once vacant faces.
A guy can dream can't he or does that take too much attention span now?

reply to post by The Lord and Savior


Not just the texting, but look at Twitter. An entire service devoted to posting of tiny messages.

in 1984, it's the process of removing the meanings of words that takes away people's ability to "fight" their oppression, right?

I am embarassed to say that I still haven't read 1984 But I do intend to soon.

I think it is mind boggling that there are soo many people who use twitter and face book to post little snippits of there pointless meaningless existence 50 times a day, EVERYDAY!!!!.....day in and day out.

I want to yell at these people WHO THE *SNIP* CARES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[edit on 28-12-2009 by alien]