>Technicapped.
>When my stepdaughter turned 13 a few weeks ago, we bought her an expensive flip phone, tricked out with a video recorder, a camera and 50 text messages a month.
“50 text messages a month?” she whined after being told the good news. “Susan has up to 25-hundred text messages a month!”
“Well you can too, if you pay for all the messages you send after 50,” I said in my best harumphy tone. “Or! If you run out of text messages, you can actually CALL people!”
Seriously. Why would she need to text message anyone, anyway? I mean, what exactly is this text messaging phenomenon? I can see it coming in handy if you’re in a business meeting or at a movie and someone urgently needs to contact you. Otherwise, it seems like it would be a pain trying to type a message on your phone pad. Much easier to just make the call, right?
Wrong.
WAT RU UP 2? 13 got this message from Susan yesterday afternoon. She wrote back.
NUTTIN. U? (2)
WATCHIN TRL. (3)
U WANNA MEET AT STRBUCKS 2MORROW? (4)
YA. WAT TIME? (5)
11-1? (6)
K. LEMME ASK. (7)
YA. I CAN GO. (8)
K. BYE. (9)
BYE. (10)
This conversation took more than an hour to transpire. Not to mention 20% of her text messages for the month.
Why couldn’t she have had this two-minute conversation on the damn phone?
Still, I guess there’s an upside to all this messaging of texts… When I was growing up, the phone was basically glued to my ear all day long and well into the night. People trying to get through to my parents via phone didn’t stand a chance.
“This is madame’s secretary,” I’d say sometimes in a clipped British accent after clicking over. “Madame is away from the phone. Might I take a message?”
“This is Jane Edwards, Lucinda, from the Junior Service League. Put your mom on the phone, please.”
“Young Miss Lucinda is also away,” I’d continue, undaunted. “Do forgive me, but I must go iron a newspaper now. Ta ta,” I’d trill before clicking back over to five of my seventh grade classmates on party line.
These days, between text messaging, instant messaging, e-mailing and cell phones,the house line is almost always free and clear.
What’s not so clear, though, to me anyway, is figuring out the cool factor on all this new gadgetry. Why is My Space in and Xanga out? Why must my stepdaughters have an iPod with a 500-song capacity rather than an equally-priced mp3 player with a 5,000-song capacity? Even with all my questions, I was grateful that we had at least managed to buy 13 a kick-ass phone.
“So, did your friends like your new cell phone?” I asked her when she got home from school the day after her birthday.
“Yeah!” she said enthusiastically. “I was worried that no one would because it’s so thick. But they all thought it was cool because it’s black instead of silver.”
So thick. So thick? It was less than an inch thick folded up! I thought about my own videoless, camerafree, text messageless, unfashionably thick phone floating around somewhere in the bottom of my diaper bag, apparently an abomination to the technological revolution. No wonder people seemed to chuckle whenever I whipped it out to make a phone call. My cell phone was about as hip as a big pair of shoulder pads.
I am now coming to terms with the realization that I don’t stand a chance of keeping up with it all. I am doomed to forever be a technofrump, always one giant leap behind the trends.
And I don’t even have a British secretary to save me.
>I have a friend with a new boyfriend and he text messages her all day long. The hell? I personally think it’s the pinnacle of unromantic but then again…who knows what he’s writing to her. I was imagining it as being as mundane as your daughter’s text convo about “strbucks” but perhaps it’s more like “hey wanna scru 2nite?” heheh
>Hang in there, Lucinda. If you didn’t need it yesterday you won’t need it tomorrow.”Need” is a lot different from “want.” Also a lot cheaper.
>My cell phone is definitely in need of pimping and I don’t own an iPod. However, I can’t live without wireless Internet at my house or Tivo!
>I can’t imagine getting into text messaging. I don’t get the appeal.And I loved the term technicapped – that’s me for sure!
>I keep hearing about cases where parents are getting socked with $500 phone bills from their kids’ text messages. Don’t know if it’s urban legend but I’m sure it’s a problem nonetheless. These things are becoming a big pain in the ass for teachers cause the kids spend all day sending messages instead of paying attention in class.Oh well – new era, new problems.
>Welcome to the world of the unhip. Lucinda. Glad you’ve joined us! (grin)
>You mean shoulder pads aren’t hip anymore?That text message thing baffles me too…. totally. I have a Tracfone, which is probably incredibly & positively uncool.BUT!UR2Kewl, Lucinda!!
>I remember talking to friends on the phone and sticking the phone in the refrigerator for the other to listen to for entertainment. Remember we were attached to a wire, too. Or does that just date me. i’m frumpier than you.My niece talks on the phone constantly when she’s here and it drives me batty. I love her to death, but that girl needs some serious phone etiquette lessons!
>Not only to I remember corded phones, I also remember rotary. Outdated, but still around.I also remember tying my phone to my head with a tube sock to see if I could stay on it all night with a friend. Heh.
>But look at you. You blog! you’re way up to date!
>My great-grandma had rotary AND pulse-dial. Not even touchtone. I always thought it was so cool…until I lived in an apartment in college that had pulse-dial.
>When I was in the 8th grade I absolutely, positively had to have purple velvet hip-hugger pants held up by a three inch wide belt with a buckle the size of Texas. My shirt was day-glow orange with the material all crinkly ’cause that was the style. I wore a leather hat (wide brim, of course) and smelled of patchouli. I still have the belt and the hat, by the way. Youth is about convention and style – today it’s less clothes and more technology; but it’s the same thing – only a hell of a lot more expensive. Doesn’t matter if we ‘grown-ups’ don’t get it – or if it seems illogical to us. Just imagine what being a kid will be like for their children! And when they come to complain to you – you can smile, shake your head, and remind them of text-messaging!
>This is hilarious, and right on the mark about teens. Emily got a cell phone in Feb. for her 12th b’day and I swear to God she texts about a hundred times per hour. I didn’t know those little fingers could work that fast!!
>I sport the free phone. It’s huge. Like it looks like an old cordless.And to me, it’s thin. LOL.
>I love the so “thick” response. I got that from my niece regarding my 60gig photo ipod. She had just gotten the new video ipod but with a lot less memory. I was like, “Kid, this thing has more memory than BOTH your parent’s computers.” She didn’t care. She was still horrified by my ipod’s disgusting thickness.
>I’ve had the exact same conversation with my stepdaughter. I do not understand it. I can understand IM’s but not text messages. I’ll try my hand at it every once in a while. It will take me 15 minutes to write a short message and more than once, my husband hasn’t even received it.
>u needa razr w2g tho
>Alas, I’m the worst type of unhip. I have old gadgets and I would kill for new ones. I LOVE gadgets. So I’m not at all happy or comfortable with my quaintness. My very good friend “texts” me all the time. HER phone has a built in keyboard and probably makes her coffee. It takes me forever to text her back. When my ship comes in, I’m going to be cutting edge.
>This stresses me out a bit. I so want to be on top of all this junk but I’m not and it worries me that I’ll lose my ability to interact with the world like a normal person. LIke my grandmother who can barely handle an answering machine. Old, old. I’m getting old.
>Hey, I remember the original cell phones that were bigger than a brick and about as heavy. And we used to think that was cutting edge. Gack.
>I’m on the verge of posting about this uncool status I’ve lately aquired. I’m kind of digging it. There’s no pressure. Notice I didn’t say, there’s *less* pressure. Or even, *very little* pressure. Nope. None. Zero. Zilch.Now, that’s FUN. (and to think I used to believe fun involved showing my friends how cool I was. what a dork.)
>My friend found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her by scanning through his text messages. He would text these girls all day long so she wouldn’t hear him on the phone with them. Yikes. That’s about all I know about text messages. But I’m with you, why would you text message if you have a phone…unless maybe you’re a cheating boyfriend?
>You won’t meet a pedophile texting your friends.
>Yep, you hit the nail on the head about the cell phone thing. I understand – and so don’t!
>I gfot screwed into this cheap-ass Escape From New York loking fone-and the eldest was catching the bus one morning and wanted to know why my fone doenst take pix like Aunt so and so’s. Well, b/c as COOL as Mommy THINKS she is-she isnt. BUT wait until September when my flippin 2 yr contrat is up!
>you do have a mini DVD player, thats gotta count for something.
>I don’t understand the whole text messaging craze either. As a side note, my father-in-law was still rocking the cellular bag phone (the kind that was so big you used to have to carry it around in a bag that looked like a laptop bag) as late as ’98. That would totally crack me up.
>i have to say, tho i’m in the minority, that there is something sort of thrilling about the text message. it’s like a portable email. another way to say, “i love you”. ha ha. but really, i enjoy writing complete sentences or thought fragments, but notthe abbreviations, etc.
>I teach school, and these teenagers have memorized how to text people without looking at the phone. They put it in the pocket of a jacket or something and text one another all day long. It makes giving tests and such a pain because you have to watch their hands, their eyes, everything….of course the phones are REALLY allowed at school but if they are in the pocket, don’t ring and they don’t get caught reading text messages…who is the wiser right? That might be a subject to broach with 13 so she understands the consequences of it….
>that should say that cell phones are NOT really allowed at school
>Very funny… and so true. We have taken to using the text messaging alot with our son so he doesn’t have to suffer the indignity of speaking with us when he is with his friends. I mean, how embarassing is that…And, I love hearing stories about Teen Lucinda. More of those would be a blast.
>God, I DREAD what new and stupid technology will pop up when my girls are old enough to “NEED” it. All of this gives me a headache.
>Can totally understand the technofrump identity. My husband got me one of those cool phones that takes pix and I don’t hardly use it to phone people much less take a damn photo. Hate digital cameras too! I WANT to have the film developed! On digitals, they just sit in the camera and I don’t know how to put them on the comp. Oh well, nice to know I’m not the only one who is technologically challenged.
>I’m totally uncool and all of your kids would hate me. Because I will absolutely not get my kids cell phones until they are 18 and then they have to pay for their line and texts. My son finally got one of his own for his 18th birthday.
>Bwwwaaaa ha ha haaa….Technofrump! Great word!
>when my oldest was in highschool, she used to text message others to see what the plans were for lunch, her phone bill was $150, which she paid herself with her parttime job. now that she’s in university and we have asked her to cough up half of the money, to make sure she actually learns something and doesn’t party the year away, she can no longer afford the phone and it sits in her desk at home. that new fancy phone will be obsolete before i finish typing this, that’s how fast the turn around is. good luck!
>When my husband travels for work, and there’s something that needs to be communicated promptly, we text. It’s easier than trying to reach him on the hotel phone, cheaper than calling long distance by cell, and I don’t need to worry about interrupting him in a meeting. This is the only application that makes any sense to me: I do NOT see the appeal in painstakingly typing something out “mnO-mN-dE jkL-dE-T-pqR” at at time. Three strokes for a single letter? Who needs it?
>Fear not – just today, my friend told me she is running a FIFTEEN YEAR OLD COMPUTER!!! Gad, it must store about one short note worth.
>’Madame.’ That’s awesome. I’m stealing that when the time comes.My students sometimes text me instead of putting together a proper e-mail. Deeply alarming. Hard to maintain confidence in the literacy levels of university students when they send messages that begin ‘how r u profsr?’
>Harmonica Man, my husband works for a cell phone company and it is not an urban legend. Parents call him every day trying to dispute the outrageous charges on their bills, swearing that little Jane couldn’t have run their bill up to $300. Between the text messaging and the internet usage, it happens quickly.Mojo, I totally agree with you. I don’t think my 13 yo needs a cell phone. If she drove and was out on her own a lot more, it would make more sense to me. Of course, I am not going to rag on the folks who do buy their kids phones because I know that if my kid gets into a situation where she needs to call home, there will be plenty of phones around!As for the popularity of texting, I use it more than I actually talk on my phone. My husband and I have a weird situation where he can’t talk on the phone at work, I don’t have a phone on my desk at work, and both e-mail systems block any messages that come from outside the organization. So text is where it’s at most of the time for us.
>My 12-year-old has a cell phone, which I provided. She has it only because her father DOESN’T HAVE A LAND LINE IN HIS HO– USE! And won’t get her a cell phone, because he “can’t afford it”. And then he goes out in the evening and leaves her ALONE IN THE HO– USE WITH NO PHONE!Can you imagine how this infuriates and exasperates me? Sadly, it does not shock me. If you’re shocked a parent would do this, it’s because you’ve never met him…
>Um. My stepdaughters’ mom doesn’t have a landline either. So they call us, long distance, from their cell phones when they visit her. Worse, she calls their cell phones and chats when she’s at work evey night while they stay with her. And we have no long distance deal. It’s like a dollar a minute. That absolutely gets on my last nerve sometimes, particularly when we’re barely scraping up money for groceries.
>LOL!She’d laugh at ours – we are still using our 1999 edition of the prepaid Tracfone. I know people chuckle when I whip THAT out, but it does the job for me. Thanks for the heads up on what we’re going to have to go through in a short 2 1/2 years.
>I remember when I was that age I thought that the end-all be-all of my existence would be my own phone line in my room. I guess the need for a cell phone is the same…the teen’s desire for privacy. And text messaging ties into that even more because nobody has to hear one side of your conversation. Still, I hate texting.