Text me! Really?

With all the technologies and knowledge at our fingertips we should have some great debates.

All the places we can visit with the stroke or strokes of a few keys.

The beauty of places we long to visit and the horrific histories of war and man’s inhumanity to man or society, all of it limited only by your desire to seek and time available.

I love looking up anything that pops in my head. Sometimes the journey to the information is more fun then finding out the benign factoid. To resist that urge to do a little more digging and fail as one another trivial fact catches my tongue. I am on another hunt for information.

That makes going out and socializing so much more fun because I will be such a well informed, up to date, in the know dinner guest, movie gore, city explorer ready to add to the conversation we all will be having at the event.   But…

What do I find, there is no conversation on current, past, future or even guess what just happened to me on the way here stories.  I get the glow of cell phones and fingers moving over the keyboards sending and receiving messages the whole time I am there.  I used to think those communications were important and once the situation was handled it would be better.   I do not have a problem if someone has to take a call they tend to excuse themselves for privacy reasons and such. 

Due to the economy I will understand someone calling to pass on a job lead and having the person take the call. But lately, we all are privy to conversations that start like this: “I am here at dinner with so and so” then they precede to have a conversation as if the rest of us are not there.  Why is that?  Have we gotten so used to having these gadgets that we forget the human contact is very important too.

People text messages of breaking up and bad news. Really?!   As if the person does not deserve the smallest of kindness of a human voice and comforting words in a time of pain and sorrow.  I have been guilty of the bad news delivery but I have left a voice mail first to say please call me.   If after many attempts at personal contact and or if the situation gets worse I will resort to a voice mail message prefaced with an apology. 

Lets face it, those messages are not easy to leave because you want or need human contact at those trying times. Texting has made us self-serving cowards.  I have heard people say I did not want to hear your voice because it was going to make me sad. Man up people.  When did we stop acting like grown ups.

It is easy to hide behind emails and text rather than focus on the person you are having a conversation. Engagement means you now have a stake or some responsibility for the conversation.

We are missing the responsibility piece in our dealings with people.  Saying I sent you a message is the new “the check is in the mail” cop out.   As if saying I only send text messages makes it ok. Text only feels like being that person who is only on the Christmas card list. If all you have is a text for me, DON’T!

Don’t get me wrong, I am not 100 years-old and I do text my friends and family but I also speak to them and see them on a regular basis too.  Love love love love technology, love it! Only it has enhanced, not taken over my communications with world.