"Never write in a letter what you can say over the phone. Never say over the phone what you can say in person. Never say in person what you can say to yourself." -- Casey Neistat
If there were a superlative in my sorority for "most likely to text you back 10 days late," I would win by a landslide. Checking my phone just isn't at the top of my priority list, and responding to text messages has never been my strong suit.
Some may call me a "terrible texter," "poor communicator," "MIA," "potentially dead on the side of the road," and other savory names. The reality is that I will 100 percent own up to these titles. A normal day for me involves checking my phone a lot in the morning, very little during the day, and a lot at night. Imagine it like my cell phone is a home phone. Most people are at home during the morning and evening, so it would only be logical to call during those hours right?
When I first received a cell phone, it was my understanding that I would use the device to call for help when I needed it or to let my family know where I was. Now that I've entered young adulthood, I have no one to answer to (most of the time,) and I rarely need anything enough to call someone. If I get stranded somewhere, want to have lunch with someone, or have a question that needs answering, I will pick up my phone and text or call whoever. For the rest of the day, I keep my phone where it belongs, not in my hand.
Not being on my phone all the time has led me to notice just how attached our generation has become to cell phones. I have left the house and gone five hours before I even noticed my phone was missing one time. Some of my friends freak out if their phone is dead for 20 minutes. When I stand in line at Starbucks, I take time to people watch or look out for friends passing by. In front of me stands five people with heads tilted 40 degrees down at their machines. It is so annoying to me when I am with someone and they have a five second response delay because their phone has their attention, not our conversation.
Whenever possible, keeping your phone set to ring for calls and silent for texts will have you only answering your phone when someone wants to call you. A phone call is much more personal and you can say so much more. I remember spending hours clogging up the landline talking to my elementary school friends on the phone. We just don't do that anymore. I don't want to get twenty years down the road and realize that I can't hold a conversation face to face because I'm so used to communicating through my text messages.
The other big reason why I never check my phone is because it is crawling with time-wasting distractions. If I go to check my texts I may just browse on over to Facebook, then onto Instagram, then onto Twitter, and you can see where this is going. Forty-five minutes later I've wasted time watching a funny cat video and seeing what Judy had for lunch today. All the time we spend checking our phone adds up. Fifteen minutes here, ten minutes there, all that time we could be spending doing anything else. Imagine if your phone only could call, text, and give you directions. How much time would you spend on it?
Texting has a place and a use. If you can't talk for some reason or you need to relay a quick message to someone, I get it. I also recognize that some people just hate to talk over the phone. The quality of communication you get from texting just doesn't hold a candle to calling. If you want to have a meaningful conversation, don't send the text just dial the number.
