The real problem with texting isn’t how it affects language, but what it does to social interaction. Is there anything more annoying when you’re trying to have a conversation than watching your companion’s eyes flitting to his phone when he sees that a text message just arrived? The hosts discuss the need for a new text-messaging etiquette. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Texting Etiquette”
We spoke earlier about David Crystal’s new book that debunks the idea that text messaging is somehow destroying English.
But I’ll tell you what, Grant. There’s one aspect, which is the etiquette surrounding texting. Not really what’s on the screen, but the whole etiquette around it.
Oh, I see. When it’s appropriate. Well, yeah, yeah. And Lynn Truss, the British author who wrote Eat, Shoots, and Leaves about punctuation, she speaks for me on this issue. She recently complained about this in print, and she wrote, “In America now, where nearly everyone seems to own a BlackBerry, there’s a new facial expression I’ve observed, which involves a fixed smile and panicky, swiveled eyes, which means, I am still listening to you, but I can see I have a message, but I am honestly still listening to you. I will read the message later, so tell me again, what did you say? I wish I could read my bleeping message.”
Yeah, yeah, I know that one. You’ve seen that look, right? And there’s a variant of that. It’s when you go out to dinner with people and all these phones appear on the table. It’s like they came with the silverware, you know? It’s plate, napkin, fork, knife, and phone right next to everyone. And they’re all looking down at the plate like every couple of minutes to look down like, dude, nobody’s called you. Everyone in your life who’s important to you is right here. Put the phone away.
Exactly. Or they look and it’s something funny and they snicker and they don’t tell you what it’s about. It drives me crazy. Right, right. They have to explain the whole backstory of how they’ve been text messaging somebody in Thailand for weeks and they think that they’re Brad Pitt and whatever.
Well, there’s the other side of the etiquette of the phone, and that is I’ve started to get advertisements in text message form, stuff I did not sign up for. That’s evil. I get enough of that in every other part of my digital life. I don’t need that on my phone.
Oh, that’s horrible. It’s illegal, but how do you catch them? Well, I’m with you, Martha. There’s something to be said about face-to-face communication that is unmediated by a digital device, right? Absolutely. And here we are talking to each other over the microphone. That’s right. And if you want to talk with us over the phone, give us a call. The number is 1-877-929-9673.
