It's quicker than making a phone call. Everyone is all about hurry up faster now days! He's probably using shorthand txt. The receiver will understand it!! lol

I have to laugh Glenda! I don't text, but the few times I have it made my son crack up because I had to spell all the words out!

Trish

I did shorthand as a secretary, and sure doesn't look like shorthand to me. Just a bunch of misspelled words.

I dunno, I think I can make a phone call faster. And I'd much rather hear a voice! I guess it's OK if you don't want anyone to hear your conversation or have a phone ringing during a meeting etc. But kids do it just because it's the in thing right now. Same as we did when we were teenagers and found something new and cool.
Soon it will be something else!

I love texting!! It is so great just to send a sentence about what you need/want to say. I really do not like talking on the phone.....so I can get things done with the texting. I use it all the time with the girls.

But I do agree that the younger kids will not know how to spell ANYTHING! Between texting and auto-correct email/word!

Both the girls text 'readable'! Dean doesn't text....except to send back "K"! lol If I need something picked up in Ames before he comes home, I can text him and not worry about interrupting any meeting he is in.

Today, I got a text from GS and he DID spell GRANDMOTHER correctly! Yea!!!!

I text AND manage to spell correctly.

In fact, the phone does it automatically. Misspelling would be harder for me to do because of that feature.

That was the short-hand of long ago,Glenda...this is the new & improved version!! lol

i do alot of texting for work. i am sitting at my desk BTW and those on the road are not allowed to text while driving. i have a 6 line phone on my desk plus a cell phone that no less than 20 people call that cell. i averaged 80 cell calls per HOUR before we got the sales & nursery people on texting. let me say that i am ULTRA organized and paid very well for my skills. it is an absolute waste of my time to call my cell and tell me to fax or email an availability to some #. text me the message & #/email and i can do that task while i am on the phone w/ someone else. also calling me to tell me you have an order to SC or GA is a waste, you do not need to speak to me for that, text it. i do have 2 of 3 sales people w/ blackberries (i have one too) and we actually email each other more. it's easier than texting since i/they can send more detailed things in the title line. emailing also allows me to keep an easier record of things such as emailed PDF's of customer PO's. all sales people do have aircards for their laptops and can pull over and get online as needed for email, it's just time consuming for them to do that.

i agree on the spelling and do not let me get started on the lack of writing/spelling skills of those under 30 yrs old. i nearly had to tear my DH's little college friends new ones over their group projects. i relied on the grapeview to get that across lol. on every group project he had, his portion got 100% (i expect & accept, only that) their writing portions always got 20%!!!! luckily they found out about their lack of skills and started letting DH (and myself) do the final editting. they had continuously referenced charts & graphs and never bothered to include them!!! GRHHH...that was just one problem.

my dh worries he is too old at 40 to be re-entering the job market in a new field (engineering) and now i remind him of his classmate competition :-))) it's good for laughs LOL i ALWAYS say the younger kids will keep us GenXer's in high paying jobs till we're 90 LOL! ~ liz

I don't even have whatever it is you use to text on/with or whatever.

Would one of you texters please just for the fun of it and to bring me up into the present, text something here . . . anything. . .just a few sentences in text so I can see what it is like and if I can "translate" it.

Thank you.

Sue

You are often limited to how many letters you can use in texting. So to get your message across you abbreviate whereever you can....at least that's the way I see it. lol

Like abt for about
4 for for
c for see

I bet PJR knows how to spell, just is texting the fast way. LOL
It is hard to figure out sometimes! (for me anyway)

When we first got a phone that we could text on...we had it banned....only because the kids would send us texts all the time...such as...Hi! Those cost us.

Now that we have unlimited texting we use it all the time. and love it...but I still have to use my full words.

patti

I can understand why it is such a distraction when driving.

What is the point??? You limit your verbal skills, you massacre your spelling skills, you become distracted and isolated, and you drive while doing this and put peoples lives in danger...

june

Glenda...I hope you have texting in your cell phone plan or you could be in for a BIG surprise when you get your bill....as I did!!!Just thought I'd warn you!!

Glenda, I learned and used shorthand too. It's so engraved in my brain I still find myself mentally doodling shorthand forms. Remember the old green steno pads iwth the line down the middle? I wonder if anyone still uses it. I learned Gregg--I think there was another...was it Pitman or something?

Mush said Same as we did when we were teenagers and found something new and cool. I agree. If we were teens now we'd be doing it too!

I guess it is faster though... cause DD probably gets and sends 50+ texts a day. That would be a lot of phone calls. lol

GS texts me thru Facebook on my pc. Not on my cellphone.

He uses his phone. I know nothing about, which is between he and his mother.

I can always get ahold of my kids when I text...texting is cheaper (on my phone at least) than making a call...I love texting, but I don't spend the time at it that younger people do

He must have a cell phone with Internet access on it, if he can get to FB!

My young assistant at work is texting whenever he gets the chance. It appears to be addictive.

hehe, I love to text too ,,although I don't do it excessively. I do use my phone to do facebook and I can get the kt on it but it takes to much time on my little keyboard to post, so I mainly read the kt.
I text my kids the most. For example, I'm picking them up somewhere and they don't come out. I'll text them I'm here and they know it's time to get going. Or when son drives back to college, esp. at night during the winter, he'll text he made it Ok. Or I'll text out after I think he's there,,just to make sure. Makes it simple. less worry in just a moment.

People that get all worked up over the "shorthand" of texting should look at the "shorthand" used on the forums! To say nothing of the spelling and grammar!

There's a place for texting, a place for email, a place for phone calls and a place for NONE OF THE ABOVE. I have a prepaid cell phone but will text through Yahoo Instant Messenger, Gizmo or Text4free for the most part. Unless I know the person will show respect for my prepaid phone and not sit and text a bunch of crap to it I don't allow texting to my cell.

Hey Glenda, you mean you haven't started "sexting" yet???

I love texting. I just do not have the time to call a dozen people each day with a dozen short messages. Texting solves the problem.

Hubs and I carpool to work, but there are times when I have to be at a meeting at another location at the beginning of my workday. So, hubs will drop me off, then come back to pick me up. I can quietly send him a text when the meeting is about to end, then he can be there to pick me up without my having to wait. If I wait until the end of the meeting to call him to let him know I'm done, then I waste a lot of time waiting for him to get there.

But, I don't use abbreviations when I text. I type out the entire word, and I use correct grammar, too.

I like the privacy of texting when I'm out and have a message for someone. It's also nice to hit everyone with the same message at once.

Thats great that you are texting with PJR! You are keeping up with the times-thats what kids that age do ALL the time.

I email him thru Facebook. He texts me using his phone.

Some of the issues that I want to deal with are ones where talking will suffice, and if I need answers, then continue with further discussion, it makes sense to speak ... if the other person is available for the voice interplay. And I can say more in a minute than you can text in 5 .. plus get an instant reply.

If it's print material that's needed, then texting makes sense, or if the other person is in a meeting, etc.

There's legit place for the various styles of communication.

From someone who doesn't text - except in situations such as this and email.

I expect that I'll be able to text on my cell, when we get it operating. With limit of 147 units, or whatever, ole joyful'll have to learn to be concise.

Life do have its problems, don't it?

ole joyful

I love texting! I'm a middle-aged woman, but I text all my friends, and most of them know how to text back.

We text little stuff, things we probably wouldn't make a phone call to talk about. "Clients were awful today. Calgon, take me away!" ... "Grace is driving me nuts. Want her to come live with you?" ... "Fajitas for dinner. Yum!"

Texting does not isolate me. On the contrary, it connects me on a new level. It's similar to when email became popular. I got closer to my sister and my faraway friends, because email allowed me to say little things that I wouldn't have called or written to say. Same for texting, only moreso.

I also use texting for simple exchanges of information. "We'll be late to gymnastics. There by 3:15." ... " "Will you bring the Mitchell file to court today? I need to copy some stuff." In the courthouse, everyone is texting. It saves so much time. For example, instead of running down the hall to another courtroom to look for a file, one of the D.A.'s will text the D.A. in the other courtroom.

I've pretty much substituted text messages for voicemail messages, too. Most of my friends use their cell phones primarily or exclusively, and it's a lot easier to read a quick message than to have to dial into voicemail. (Speaking of which, as far as I can tell, young people don't use voice mail anymore. Young friends of mine complain when their mothers call and leave messages. "Why is she leaving a message? I can see she called on caller ID.")

Just FYI, if you'd like to text someone but don't have texting on your cell phone (or don't have a cell phone), sign up for a Gmail account. It allows you to send SMS messages (that's texting) from your computer, just the same as an email. People can respond to you, too. I'm sure there are other services that do this, but Gmail happens to be the one I use.

However you feel about texting, I think it's smart for anyone who has a child or grandchild to learn to do it.

There are contest for the Fastest Thumbs in texting. Some contests payout big bucks. Here is a link about an Iowa girl winning $50,00!
http://www.phonedog.com/cell-phone-research/blog/iowa-girl-wins-50-000-in-goofy-texting-contest.aspx

I may have my son enter...he is fast!

I text different people for different reasons, all of which are pretty much covered by other posters. Convenience and speed. "I'm here" is all I need to say to DS so he knows to leave the building and go to the parking lot. Actually, calling would not be any faster by the time the numbers and dialed, the call connects and the phone rings. He might be in a place it's loud (a high school basketball/football game) and we wouldn't hear each other anyway. I text friends in the middle of the day (Coffee at 4:00?) b/c we are both working and playing voice-mail tag is a waste of time. They text me (Can you take both girls home from gymnastics?). Sometimes I spell words out, sometimes I don't. Sometimes the text looks like an English teacher sent it; sometimes it looks like a monkey sent it.

You know I am a grammar freak. Most of the time it matters to me more than it should. Honestly, there are posts on KT that I just cannot read because I cringe and shudder and my eyes cross. But there are times when even I need to relax my standards a bit and go with the flow. If I can do it, anyone can. ;o) It cannot be assumed that a kid who uses text jargon will be unable to write properly when it matters. That's like suggesting a kid who speaks Spanish will be unable to learn proper English. Different communication modes for different situations, that's all.

I don't disagree that the standards of English usage are falling. But I don't blame texting. Even if we took texting away from every teen, the problem would still be there. I blame a lot of things, but not texting.

Kids like texting because it's like passing notes in school was when we were kids. If it's banned, it's desirable. My 14 yr old grandson can sit in his chair at school with his shoulders thrown back & his arms behind the chair. In that position, he can text. That's right- he's not looking at the keyboard because he has it memorized. He's been caught a few times & now his mother has custody of his cell phone. He can no longer bring it to school.