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Thumbs down to text messaging
(by Barbara Christian - October 14, 2009)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET, BY BARBARA CHRISTIAN
Thumbs down to text messaging
Remember the good old days when we complained about rude cell-phone users? There must be more cell towers around, or the phones are better, because you don't hear as much shouting out of personal business as before.
That may not be such a good thing, because these former cell yellers are now texting, and they are doing it while they drive. And you thought driving and cell-phone talking was bad. This is far worse. Unless you have grown a second pair of eyes, no way can you text and drive at the same time.
You can always tell when a driver is texting, because he or she looks like they have nodded off at the wheel. What they are really doing is looking down and either reading or responding to the latest twit, tweet or twaddle.
Last week, we were waiting for the light in front of the BP gas station when a woman turning left from Main onto East Washington Street changed lanes, whipped around the corner without once looking up. Look, Ma, no hands has become look, Ma, no eyes. Where is a cop when you need one?
The car is not the only place texters do their thing. I have seen a Chagrin Falls Council person or two peeking at their Blackberries and then surreptitiously (or so they think) respond to the message with the not-so-subtle maneuver called the "glance and text while appearing to look interested in what is being said."
We suspect all this texting and tweeting is a way for not ever having to talk to anyone. Information can be exchanged without awkward pauses or the obligatory, "So how's the family" routine.
But don't blame this anti-social behavior on the new technology. It began with the answering machine then voice mail and caller ID. They all made it possible to ignore the people you don't want to talk to.
Perhaps our newfound, nonverbal communications go back even farther to the first copy machines. Before, in order to do our job, we had to hand copy information from documents kept at Village Hall or call someone over there and beg them to read it to you over the phone. The copy machine made the information available at the touch of a button. Then came the fax, which would transfer a copy straight to your office, saving a trip to Village Hall.
Today, we can get almost anything by going online and copying it on a synched-up printer.
No doubt, this is an amazing time to be alive. But we fear some things will change forever as we move toward texting as a way to do most of our communicating. It's the kids who will suffer most. Abbreviated text language will make correct spelling an old-fashioned concept and spelling bees a quaint old custom.
And they are going to have a new orthopedic ailment when their thumbs seize up from using them in place of a voice box. Soon there will be an entire generation of illiterates with thumbs the size of grapefruits.
In fact, why not do everyone a favor and stop that practice, lest we all become victims of death by text message. Bottom line, don't text and drive, lest your last word be ::POOF::
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