A lot of older people ask: What is the point of texting? Why not just call?
Ahh, texting. I have a love/hate relationship with texting. Texting seems to be the most popular form of communication among members of my generation. The problem is that texting is the absolute most horrible way of communicating. It’s like email, except with a maximum of only 160 letters in each message. Enough nuance gets lost in any and all textual mediums of communication, even in novels with 4 digit page numbers. Limiting yourself to 160 letters is practically running through a minefield of misconceptions. Bottom line: I don’t text unless it’s absolutely appropriate. Let me break down texting etiquitte:
When to text:
- Someone initiates contact through text: For me this is the most common reason I text. It’s considered polite to text back, even if you could call them. They probably texted you for a reason, and are unable to call because of it, and it’s best just to assume that this is the case.
- You need to communicate clear, brief, and specific information: For example: “The address is 123 Fake Street, let’s meet at 7pm.” Simple enough.
- You need to communicate information that shouldn’t be forgotten: It’s like writing someone a note and sticking it in their lunchbox, except it’s their phone. This is almost the same as the reason above.
- You need to communicate information that is private: Conversely, it’s appropriate to initiate contact with a text message if you know the person you’re trying to contact might not be alone, and you need to communicate something private. It’s best just to wait and call them if you can (or just text them and tell them you will), as this type of information can easily be misunderstood.
- You’re in a situation where talking would be inappropriate or impossible: Like if you are at work, at school, operating a jackhammer, or somewhere underground. Conversely, it’s appropriate to initiate contact with a text message if you know the person you’re trying to contact is going to be in a situation where they could not or should not be talking on the phone.
Some other guidelines:
- Don’t try to communicate too complex information. Use the KISS (Keep It Simple and Stupid) principle.
- Don’t try to communicate too much information. Keep it short, you don’t have to use all 160 letters of every message.
- Humor through texting is hard given the constricting context. Limit it, unless you know the person very well. Sarcasm in particular just leads to confusion.
- Anticipate potential misconceptions, and try to word your text to avoid them.
- Don’t use multimedia messages, unless you know they can accept them. Ask if you have to.
- Sending text messages with just an “ok” in them is, um, ok. I’d even encourage it. Some people dislike it, but messages can get dropped at the worst of moments, and it’s a simple way of verifying that you received the message but don’t have anything to add in response.
- Grammar wins! Use capitals, commas, colons, periods, and apostrophes to make messages easier to understand.
- Check before you send. T9 is a blessing (in that it makes texting faster), but also a curse (because people misspell stuff without thinking and the result is incomprehensible mumbo jumbo).
- Don’t have a deep conversation through text messages. It’s a waste of both your time and theirs.
