I HATE Texting/SMSing!

This comic strip is funny, true and at the same time reflects how Texting/SMSing has taken charge of being a primary mode of communication and how it is affecting our way of communicating to others and how it has changed the dynamics and structure of a conversation literally over its head. Let me be clear here. I am not a big fan of Texting. I hate it. Its the dumbest thing I have seen since Rakhi Sawant’s acting. Texting is more dumbing than India TV’s News. Texting is certainly more Idiotic than Ravindra Jadeja playing cricket. There. I said it. Come and get me.

I recently called (YES. I CALL PEOPLE!) a very good friend of mine to talk and catch up. I shall call this friend ABC. Now, ABC most of the time picks up the call to talk no matter how busy he/she is. I hardly text anyone and prefer calling rather than texting. 

It so happens that ABC, always picks up my call or calls back. But this time, after almost half an hour ABC did not call back. Fair enough. I texted ABC what i wanted to talk about and ended the text with a “call me”. I got a reply about the first part of the text and nothing about the “Call Me”. I replied and again ended the message with a “Call me”. Yet i get a reply that goes a bit like this: “a BIT BUSY.is it ok if i call 2mrw?”. I just saw the bit busy written in Caps , replied “ok.gn”  and slammed my phone on the table. Why I did that, I’ll come to that part later. Many of you may ask, why didn’t I simply call again rather than text? Well, Its ok to call and leave a message and wait for that person to respond. So I waited. 

Now why did i slam my phone down? Because in a way, I was offended. I get that ABC was busy. But why write “BIT BUSY” in capital and send the message? It felt as if im an Airtel telesales executive trying to sell ABC a Sim Card and ABC is shooing me off like a rat. Call me an idiot. Call all this a misunderstanding. But if YOUR Best Friend replied and acted like that with you, I am sure, you’d feel the same.

Now heres something to ponder on. This whole Texting saga between me and ABC lasted 10 minutes give or take. Now imagine if ABC would have picked up the call. The conversation would have hardly lasted 2 minutes?. Maximum 5 minutes? But that was not the case. What point am i trying to prove here? Well, its clearly in front of you!

SMS/Texts are alright for Forwarding Jokes, CID Shayaris and those highly irritating Scroll down messages, informing a mass of people about certain announcements. But thats about it. Beyond that I find calling and talking is a far better option. Because a) a conversation is fast and b) a conversation is complete. When it comes to texting, you not only have a limited space to “talk” but also your conversation is left incomplete if one of the “texters” does not reply or replies late. This is where the whole concept of Texting falls flat on its face. 

So why do people prefer texting and not talking? Because its fast and easy? But so is talking isn’t it? I bet all you texters out there, give me a true reason you love texting and I will better the reason and tell you why Talking wins.

The saying that “Give people an option and they will take it” hold true for this. Give people an option between Texting and talking and a majority chunk will want to text. There will hardly be anyone who would like to sit and have a decent conversation. I am sorry texters but you just cant put everything you have to say in a 160 character long text. It just doesnt work and its pointless to me. And please spare me the replies that say “but you can send an extra long sms”. I’d rather have an Extra long conversation than sit and type on a small idiotic keypad or touchscreen what i want to say. 

Say what you want rather than writing it down in a text. It not only feels great but also is fulfilling. It makes you feel closer to whomever you are talking to. You will “feel” emotions and also make you feel better. A conversation can never be forgotten, but a text chat will be deleted or will lie forgotten in your inbox and will fade away from memory. I can bet you that the most memorable conversations in your life will be a talk and not a text message (Unless you are an exception)

I am not here to preach. Everyone has their own opinions. This one is mine. It completely makes no sense to me as to how can people text important stuff and not talk and also that they can find time to text and not talk when clearly talking is so much faster and easier! 

Perhaps the one the thing I hate the most about Cell Phones is that people reply to a text by a text which is okay, but why do people not pick up a call when they are busy but find time to text back instantly that they are busy?! And even more idiotic and irritating is the fact that people dont pick up but instead text back stating ” Hey..you called?..what happened?”. All this irritates me. If you can reply a text with a text, then why not respond to a call with a call?! 

Meanwhile, as I type my rant, my reply to ABC must be in his/her inbox getting burried under new messages and who knows, ABC may have deleted it after reading it. All I know is that ABC is supposed to call me because He/She texted me stating the same. As I wait, I wonder if He/She will even remember about that He/She texted me about calling the next day. 

I just hope i get to talk to ABC and that we dont end up texting each other. Because not only do i value my friend but also value the conversations more than the texts.