Better just to wait for the ring
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
The Wall Street Journal reports that cell phone users pose another problem for society besides talking while driving, and that is texting while walking. We’ve all seen it: A person will be walking down the street and not looking where he or she is going because he or she will be pounding his or her cell phone with his or her thumbs.
It is hard to imagine that any text message could be so important as to risk colliding with someone or tripping over something. I know I would not attempt it. Whenever I send a text message, the process is so engrossing that I have to remain seated just to think about how to get it done.
“Let’s see,” I say to myself. “What do I do next?”
On my cell phone, it is necessary for one to select the recipient before one starts tapping out the message. That isn’t always easy. I keep several names and numbers in my phone’s address book, but about half of them have indicated that they either never read text messages or don’t know how to retrieve them from their phones. Others have indicated that they hardly ever have enough minutes left in their plan month to waste them on reading a message from me.
But let’s assume that I know someone who wants to get a text message from me, and that I am able to enter that person’s cell phone number into the appropriate field on my cell phone.
Next comes the composition of the message. I am not a person who sends messages just so say “How are you doing?” There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with asking that, but why go to the trouble of sending a text message? My text messages tend to be four or five paragraphs, and I think, maybe it would be better just to call on the phone.
If I tried to deal with all this while walking around, I’d be smacking into utility poles or bowling over other people left and right.
Better for me to just sit home and wait for somebody to call.
