Dear Abby: sms attachment: judgmental.jpeg

[lemonsharks]

DEAR ABBY: Recently, family members have started texting to inform me about personal, private matters. When they do, I text back, which sometimes leads to lengthy paragraphs. I wish they’d just call me! I’m beginning to wonder if that’s what they are avoiding. I should add that I am not feuding with my family. Am I wrong? — PERPLEXED IN CONNECTICUT

DEAR PERPLEXED: No, you are not wrong. People have become so enamored of their electronic devices they seem to have forgotten that sometimes it’s more efficient to just TALK to the other party. I know from personal experience that emailing and texting can take far more time than a spoken conversation.

Comments

[cereta]

I'll be the outlier, here: I hate texting. I'm not particularly good or fast at it, and it hurts my English teacher soul not to spell things out/use apostrophes/capitalize stuff. I don't really enjoy talking on the phone all that much, but since I left home at 18, had my friends all scatter at 22, then again at 23, and again at 24, and moved again at 31, and since none of these moves took me back to my home town, I got pretty used to using the phone to keep up relationships. I don't like calling strangers or using the phone to conduct business or deal with things like healthcare, but I'd rather talk on the phone than text. What I'd really prefer is using email/asynchronous online discussion/real-time chat than any of these, and I tell my students that if their question requires any answer longer than "yes," "no," or "Tuesday," they should email me.

So I have some sympathy for the LW, and I don't really think it's unreasonable for them to request that in-depth, lengthy discussions be conducted by speaking rather than texting. They would need to give some, too, getting used to dealing with smaller matters via text, but I don't think letting family and close friends know that you're not very big on texting is any less reasonable than telling family and close friends that you don't like talking on the phone.

[green_grrl]

What I'd really prefer is using email/asynchronous online discussion/real-time chat than any of these, and I tell my students that if their question requires any answer longer than "yes," "no," or "Tuesday," they should email me.

So. Much. This!

[julian]

Oh, like, *my* preferences are email, then IM/discord/whatever, then texting, *then* phone call, but I am wayyyy not the LW.