Comments on: Why the Intrusion of Texting Will Lead to an Amish-style Revolution

By: Camilo

Camilo — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:24:18 +0000

How ’bout letting the teenagers message YOU before or after the visit? Maybe they would feel it’s better for them, open a private channel of communication with them which they are already using, and let them let you know what is bothering them? They are not stupid, maybe they don’t have any reason to trust you. They’ll trust you more if you let them know they can use SMS as a way to communicate what they think is wrong.

By: Greg P

Greg P — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:45:20 +0000

note to emmy (and others):

Parents need to set standards. You show that you care about someone, your children or even people you interact with, by encouraging them, cajoling them, forcing them to interact in the real world with real people. You do this because you need to defend them from being taken advantage of.

There is no power in making someone dependent on you, only weakness. If there is anyone on the planet you must be mentoring, it is your own child. You mentor someone by empowering them, making them responsible for their own decisions.

By: TVille

TVille — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:52:55 +0000

It’s not just teenagers. My husband and his colleagues are slaves to their chosen multitasking technology. The first time I went to dinner with a group of them, every single one of them laid at least one, and in some cases two ‘phones’ on the table so that any incoming communication would be read, rejected, reviewed, and possibly even responded to – immediately. Throughout the evening each of them would casually, or a casual as you can be while engaging in pleasant dinner discussion, reach over to said device to read something. Occasionally they would do this simultaneously, as the communications were often work-related, and these were work colleagues. So all five of them might reach for their device, thus creating a large gap in attention to the speaker. Umm…awkward? I was astounded. I’m from Silicon Valley – it’s not uncommon to see people with bluetooth devices in both ears and enough PDA holsters to, presumably, launch an attack on some unsuspecting technophobe country, but to ignore the communicator in front of you, in favor of the remote communicator during what I considered a “nice” dinner, caused my jaw to hit the table. Several times. Stopped at a stoplight? Better refresh the device – an email might have come in since the last stoplight. My husband does not work in a life-or-death field.

I understand the desire to maximize time efficiency. Standing in line at the DMV and being able to conduct business (or even chat with friends) is a nice thing. But not understanding that there is a time and place for everything irks me. There’s some Buddhist saying about not letting your things control you…seems appropriate in this instance.

By: emmy

emmy — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 05:27:05 +0000

From what I’ve seen with my kids, talking to doctors is why mom is there. They will sit there an look at me to answer for them the question the doctor just asked directly to them. They may as well be texting their friends for all the input they have.

By: drcharles

drcharles — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:32:38 +0000

great commentary. i dig this issue.

By: Matt M

Matt M — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:23:10 +0000

Ten years ago, I was at a conference in Savannah with my banking colleagues. At the lunch break we all walked out of our hotel, and crossed the street to a pavilion on the bay. Here we were, surrounded by antebellum history and modern industry, nature and water. All five of them were on the phone, and could have been anywhere. It was instructive.

I have often wished for a pocket device, which could be used to disrupt nearby communication signals. Push the button, and everyone in the immediate area would be dropped from their network. After a few minutes of confusion, they would be forced to address the people around them. I suspect that the device exists, but is illegal for certain very good reasons. But still, I want one.

By: chairman meow

chairman meow — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:31:22 +0000

re: Chris
I think you over simplified my statements. Let me be brief, as i previously rambled on. Text messaging, Reality TV, and a public that is obsessed with increasingly shallow, shiny things to me are symptoms of a larger phenomena. That being that we increasingly look for meaning in “stuff,” and value things according to shallow benchmarks & instant ego-driven gratification. A symptom of this has been the lack meaningful communication among young people. I don’t just think that texting is “faster” – i think it is often a superficial way to communicate.

I think that even though the “good old days weren’t always good,” (and i am hardly a conservative, as you have pegged me) it is worth noting that 30 years from now, we will probably view this time period as largely living in the shallow “ego” – I think, like the 80’s, it will be seen as a time of greed and instant gratification. that is apparent in how many young people communicate w/ each other, as well as the art and entertainment that is being embraced.

By: robin andrea

robin andrea — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:55:15 +0000

My HMO wants me to spend $60 a year for the privilege of being able to email them. Perhaps for a few bucks more, they’ll let me text them my serious questions about health. Unfortunately, I have never used a cell phone for texting, so all those quaint little short words that abbreviate experience elude me.

Constant chatter is not actual experience. It is the absence of experience pretending to be experience. It doesn’t take very much physical activity to text, and all that brain firing is going nowhere very quickly. Texting must feel so much like real life, pretty soon it will be hard to tell the difference.

By: GruntDoc

GruntDoc — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:39:30 +0000

I think you’d enjoy a cell-phone jammer in your office.

By: Greg P

Greg P — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 01:36:58 +0000

About 15-20 years ago I was in a restaurant in La Jolla, and realized I was seeing the future. This was before texting. A group of guys in their 20s came in, sat down at a table, each instantly whipping out a cell phone, and, while looking off into space in some direction other than the others at the table, began a conversation with someone at some other place.

So they sat together, but really weren’t together. Texting is just an extension of that mode, where we’re not mentally where we are physically, and maybe we’re not mentally anywhere in the real world. TV, video games, texting — all ways of not really being anywhere, not accomplishing anything, just passing time. Sooner or later, and maybe we already see signs of the personal problems that come with a constant need to be somewhere else, with someone else, but even if we were with that someone else, we’d be texting to another someone else.