How did we survive

Last night was the monthly running club meeting.  Afterward we continued the post meeting South Street tradition where I enjoyed beer, pizza, laughs and karaoke.  I was surprised that a number of the karaoke singers were really good and none of them were downright awful.

For a long, long time I was off the texting bandwagon.  I read the stories about teens sending thousands of text messages each and every month and looked at it as pure lunacy.  I also was vocal about idiots that have their face buried in their phone texting while driving.  I remember when I used to get bent out of shape about people simply talking on their cell while driving.  Hell now when I see someone simply talking on the phone they come off as responsible drivers.

For a long time I had a limited texting plan on my smart phone, capped at 200 messages a month and I never ever came close to that cap.  Texting just never appealed to me much, email or IM were my preferred virtual forms of communication.

So anyway, my separation exposed me to the world of texting.  In my dating experiences I quickly found that most women wanted you to text them, many times preferring that over any other form of communication.   I added unlimited texting to my phone plan to accommodate this new reality, who wants overage charges after all?

So I discovered I am a pretty good texter, since it is just another form of written communication which I am far better at than the verbal variety.  Without realizing it I started getting sucked into the texting vortex.  All of a sudden going long periods of time without sending a few words to someone else via the computer in my pocket felt odd.  You start to text people pointless status updates about what you are doing for no good reason at all.

If I was able to talk to the 1995 version of myself and try to explain why I am sending all of these tiny thoughts back and forth between various people all day long, the 95 me would tell the 2013 me to snap out of it.   After all, for the first three decades of my life, connections to others were limited to face to face conversation or picking up a phone wired to the POTS. (plain old telephone system)

When the cell phone craze hit I remember feeling much the same way, that it was stupid that so many people felt the need to talk on the phone so often.  99% of all conversations could wait until you get out from behind a wheel.  Yet as time progressed this practice of always being reachable via a portable phone became as commonplace as breathing.

Well texting has followed the same general course although it is even more dangerous when practiced while driving a car.  Despite the danger, texting/interacting with your smart phone while driving is rampant.  Simply look around you while driving on any moderately busy road.  I can guarantee you that you will see a number of people looking down at a screen instead of at the road. It’s crazy.

Of course I am a hypocrite, I have found myself interacting with my Iphone while driving, especially since getting the 5 with the voice to text translation.  Even with that feature, I still am required to glance down at the phone more than I should be.  I shouldn’t do it at all.

Texting for whatever reason takes on an addictive nature.  We become Pavlov’s dog, responding to the little noise or vibration, indicating some person has sent us some short form of communication.  It becomes a reflex reaction to grab your phone, even when no noise is heard, just to make sure you didn’t miss anything.

I am using this blog post as motivation to discontinue this practice as much as possible personally.  If I am driving, the phone can wait.  I have hands free Bluetooth to address phone calls but if something is life or death, dont send me a text about it.

End the madness.