January 31, 2010

• Something that frustrates me to no end is how much people enjoy texting.  I hate texting.  First of all, I'm extremely slow at it because I don't have one of those crazy keyboard phones so I have to sit staring at the phone for like five minutes pressing numbers over and over to type, "Hey how are you."  Another problem is that I hate when people use things like 2, 4, u, r and also just a few letter to represent a really long word so they don't have to type it.  I mean, I don't fucking know what you mean when you type that shit!  I get all confused and I don't know how to respond and then I end up just ignoring the message, which is usually followed by an equally confusing second message wondering "wer im @", not to mention that each of these short, pointless attempts at communication costs me $.10 because I don't have unlimited texting...because I wish texting would die in a fire and I don't want to support people's constant need to try and involve me in it.  There are a few people who send me long and interesting texts and who don't repeatedly ask me why I'm not responding, but they are VERY few.

  On the other hand, another thing that frustrates me is how fucking slow people are at instant messaging.  I usually end up losing interest in a conversation because people take like a minute to type three words.  I could type an entire paragraph, or two or three even, in a minute.  I've been typing since I was really young and since I started blogging I've gotten really really fast at it.  So to for me to actually be engaged the entire time while instant messaging I have to be talking to like six or seven people at one time and they all have to be responding as fast as they can or I just get bored and give up.

  And then there are phones.  Don't even get me started on phone calls.  The phone occupies a hand, so I lose the ability to do any complicated tasks while talking on it.  Also, I have a long neck so I can't really comfortably hold the phone between my cheek and shoulder.  And who wants to look like a complete tool with one of those little ear things where you look like you are talking to your imaginary friend all day?  The only person I can really put up with long phone calls from is my mother, and that's because I love her and have the patience to share my time with her.  Otherwise, I expect phone calls to consist of one of two things:  planning times and places to meet OR situations where I need information quickly and can't wait on an e-mail.  Any other time I don't want to get a phone call.  Don't call me on my birthday, don't call me at Christmas, don't call me because you are bored.  Don't call me unless you want to meet me in person or you have a fucking emergency!  And don't expect me to call you unless I have one of the same two things to talk to you about. 

  Finally there is e-mail.  I love e-mail.  I can take my time and really think about what I want to type.  I don't get angry if people don't immediately respond because it's not expected with e-mails.  I'm not required to finish an e-mail before I do something else.  I can start one, check facebook, watch some television and then come back later and finish it off.  I think my favorite person to e-mail is my crazy grandmother because I don't want to completely ignore her, but phone calls with her are really really REALLY long and very strange.  E-mails, on the other hand, can be read whenever I feel like and can be responded to at my leisure.  Another thing is that e-mails leave a nice time stamp.  If I say I sent you an e-mail at blah time on blah day, well, even if you deleted it it's in my sent folder.  That has saved me several times when professors say, "But I never got your paper," and I'm like, "But I sent it to you.  Check it out."

  Really, though, of all the forms of communication, face to face is my favorite.  Most people talk at the same speed, understand at the same speed and get bored at approximately the same rate.  I guess this post has gotten kind of long and ranty, but what I'm really trying to say is I miss people enjoying face to face communication.  To me, there is no other way to make friends.  I don't make friends online.  It's not my thing.  I only talk to people online because I can't see them in person.  There is just something so irreplaceable about seeing someone's face and smiling with them and laughing with them that certainly cannot be expressed with "lol" or anything like that.  I just...hope humanity never loses that enjoyment of actual face to face interactions.  It scares me sometimes that one day we will all be living in our own little boxes chatting with fake friends online in the dark while sustenance is intravenously fed to us.  Anyway...that's kind of depressing.

  Don't replace face to face.  Don't let your interacts with others amount to nothing more than a jumble of chat logs.  Don't stop hugging and laughing and smiling and winking.  Don't ever stop.

  • 8:47 pm
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