no, i don't text message. i stopped texting on dec 29, 2009, and i haven't looked back. truthfully. i don't miss the convenience of it (although while i was in london for HAIR, i texted there...but only because the phone i had, which was from 1973, didn't have email capabilities) i don't miss the quick banter, or the zip/beep/vibrate/ping of that incoming message. i don't miss it.
i also want to apologize to those people out there who may have tried texting me in this past year, and to whom i (obviously) didn't respond. it is annoying, but when you send a text to someone who doesn't text (me) it won't send you a default message back to say, "hey...gavin didn't get this message" or "texting is blocked to this number" it just basically leaves you thinking i got the text and i'm just the a-hole who didn't want to respond.
i had at&t (who i will not be with for much longer, once iPhone works with verizon....smell ya later at&t....) take the texting feature off my phone.
now i want to explain why.
no, i'm not like those vegetarians who don't eat meat because of the horrifying acts committed to animals. (while i respect their conviction....steak....i can't quit you...why can't i quit you?) but i'm like one of those vegetarians who just decided....i've had enough. i'm gonna stop eating that stuff. it doesn't make me feel good, when i am finished with it i don't feel like myself, and really....i just don't need it, now do i?
the main two reasons for me quitting texting though....were this:
a) i got sick of people getting MAD at me for not texting right back, or for getting their text, registering the information that i received, and then in my pea brain, thinking i had told them that i got the information. either way, having a friend get pissed at you for not doing this immediate response thing, started to tick ME off.
and
b) THERE ARE TOO MANY WAYS TO GET IN TOUCH WITH ME....and NOT ENOUGH GOOD REASONS WHY! i could be emailed to my personal email, to my business email, to my facebook email, you could post something on my wall, you could tweet me, you could RT me, or @ me or whatever that is, you could call my cel, you could leave a message on my voicemail, you could call my skype, or leave a message there or ....or....what else is there? TOO MANY.
and inevitably, i forget things, like, when you call me and i'm talking to someone else. in my effort to be polite (which switching over to another call really isn't, is it? my mom always hated that....she's used to it now....sad) but to be polite i would just pop over and say, "hey allyson (sister) i'll call you back in a second. just talking to (so and so)" and then, i forget to call her for like 2 days.
that's my brain. i try, but i forget. so...when i was confronted at the time with feeling torn between so many forms of 'communication' (and i put that in quotations because are we REALLY in all these ways, truly communicating?) ----okay, i can hear you groaning now and thinking "ugh he's all holier than thou and all self righteousy....ew".....i've probably lost you already because this isn't really that interesting...
but screw it. anyway....
i just thought....i'm gonna lose one of these. and TEXTING costs money. so, i decided, i'm gonna get rid of it and bear the brunt of people being pissed about it for a bit, and then never have to worry about being torn away from a dinner or a walk or sex, or really anything so that i can just see 100 or so characters of information telling me something that i probably really didn't need to know RIGHT THEN anyway.
there used to be no call waiting and no answering machines and hell....i remember pulse tone dialing. it used to drive me crazy that my parents wouldn't get a touch tone phone. now...i dream of those days.
geeze, i'm turning into my grampa. oi.
but just to clear it up,
GAVIN CREEL DON'T DO NO TEXTIN'
and i had to walk uphill in the snow BOTH WAYS to get to school.....grrrrrrrrr
(fart....recline....golf....nap)
peace
g
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ReplyDeleteI was watching a little girl text the other day and almost went-up to her and said, "When I was your age...I used to have to wait until I got home until I called my friends...and sometimes I would have to TALK TO THEIR PARENTS...and then I had to walk twelve miles in the snow with no shoes on..."
ReplyDeletecommendable. I've recently begun to realize that the internet is making me dumber, that technology makes me impatient, and I have a hard time letting go of that stupid blackberry. Ugh. I may have to follow suit!
ReplyDeleteGavin, you're just... so real. I love it. Keep on keepin' on (and not texting). ;)
ReplyDeleteGavin, you're adorable.
ReplyDeleteThe only form of texting I do is through Twitter. But does that really count?
This makes a lot of sense. Our generation seems to prefer sending a quick message on a tiny phone as opposed to having an actual verbal conversation with someone. It's so impersonal, and just seems wrong that we, as human beings who have been given the gift of speech, are neglecting it and taking the easy way out of communicating. Plus, texting promotes really terrible grammatical and general English skills (lol srsly u no?).
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, I cannot quit. Bravo, Mr. Creel. I wish I had the strength.
Molly
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ReplyDeleteAbsolutely love this. Very understandable.
ReplyDeleteI can't give up texting. I "communicate" too much with it. I would probably go insane because I am so attached to it. Pathetic.
I blocked text messaging three years ago. It's hard sometimes. I went back to college and all my friends have it. I've considered giving in. Sometimes it's hard to stand up under the pressure, but you, Gavin, have given me the hope that I need, the assurance to make it through this. Sometimes I feel all alone, like I'm the only one, but I can make it with the hope that there is someone standing with me. Thank you.
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