The Socialite: I Wanna Text You Up

It was only a few months ago when I stepped out on a limb to

say that online communities have become the cause for real-life interactive

deficiencies in our culture.

 

We’re sitting in front of the computer screen or the

bathroom mirror for photo-ops for hours on end. Then once outside, we become

clumsy inadequate souls that clam up at the moment of verbal initiation.

 

Wow, I thought the internet was an issue. Being an Avatar

Socialite (or an AS for short) pales in comparison to the current scourge to

social development: text messaging.

 

Text messaging is society’s anti-social tool of mobile

choice; day minutes are spared, messages are short yet can be impactful (often

in the form of acronyms) and the vibration setting when it goes off in your

pocket can’t be beat.

 

But do you want to talk ignorant?

 

Text messaging has no bounds, no limits and up to this

point, no rules and/or regulations. For example, let’s say that you and I are

in the middle a conversation and my phone rings. If I decided to show my phone

any attention while you’re talking to me, you’d think of me as being rude,

especially if I put a finger up, turn away from you and answer the phone,

right?

 

Well not with text messaging. Since you don’t have to answer

your phone to check a text, you’d look at the screen, but not away from the

screen before completely reading the message. And that text better not be funny

or down right raunchy. If it is, right in the middle of your conversation, you’d

make your, “quick reply.” It only takes a second, right? Until one reply turns

into eight replies, and now the person who is actually sitting in front of you

feels left out.

 

The scourge of text messaging also happens in the setting of

automobiles. Let’s say that you’re the driver and I’m the passenger. We’re

having a conversation on our way to the restaurant when my phone vibrates. I

take out my phone to check the message. I laugh out loud to that message while

you were setting me up for a joke which I’ve subconsciously ignored.

 

I finish this anti-social banter by replying to that message.

Yes, ignorant to the core. My neck is on tilt, jamming my thumbs to the tune of

my ‘Qwerty’ keyboard. Now you, as the driver feeling some type of way, turn up

the volume on the music to drown me out. But even your sound system doesn’t

stand a chance. For one, I don’t need to hear in order to text message. It’s

nearly impossible to upend a text conversation, short of splashing a chemical

into the person’s eyes or crushing their thumbs with a sledgehammer.

 

And now, texting is not only crushing conversations to bits,

it is taking lives. Drivers of automobiles, who just can’t wait to answer their

texts when they get home, are causing disruptions behind the wheel. Motorists are

taking their eyes off the road for seconds at a time to receive the message,

then reply to the message without looking back at the road; yes, while the car

is still moving forward.

 

Last summer, five Fairport

High School students died in a head on

collision with a tractor in East

Bloomfield, NY, just

days after their graduation. Investigations showed that the driver was in the

midst of a back and forth, text messaging banter at the time of the accident.

Now although the authorities could not say for sure that it was the driver who

was having the conversation, they did state that texting can be a major

distraction while driving. One of the last texts sent during the conversation

was less than 30 seconds before a 911 call was made from the driver of the tractor

trailer.

 

And on the other end of the spectrum, a 19-year-old British

teenager by the name of Rachel Begg was sentenced to four years in prison for

the death of Maureen Waites (64, grandmother). Records showed that on a rainy

night, Rachel sent nine texts up to 15 minutes before rear ending Maureen,

sending her into a crash barrier.

So remember, “Saving texts, Can Save Lives.” I should really trademark that

statement.

 

Now that a majority of cell phone carriers are implementing

“Unlimited Texting” features to their monthly plans, I felt that it was

important to add caution to the texting movement.

 

Tips from the

Socialite

 

Save text messaging

for later when:

 

You’re talking to someone in-person. Great

conversation has everything to do with ascending energy. Just as you’d like to

be, the person that you’re conversing with would like to feel important; they’d

like to feel that their thoughts matter to you. How could you accomplish

ascending energy while reading and answering texts every five minutes? So yes,

it is wrong to answer a text during a date. If anything, at least ask to be

excused for a moment. Just don’t get lost in the process.

 

You’re at the dinner table, either at home or

out on the town. Your guest or your host will pick up on the fact that you’re

not paying attention to your surroundings. The easiest way to frustrate someone

is by showing them that you could care less for their generosity extended to

you. Each time that you insist that you are listening, yet you continue to ask

what was just said, you’ll witness what it means to disappoint someone in a

social setting. Plus, cell phone carriers won’t exchange phones that have

marinara sauce damage.

 

You’re attending a

funeral. Just because you cut the sound off on your phone, doesn’t mean

that you’re exempt from being noticed. Show some decency, why don’t ya’…

 

So tell me, when was the last time you were the

culprit of anti-social text messaging?