A Quick Rant

Reluctantly, I have joined the masses in text messaging - it's by no means a regular part of my day (having a phone with a full keyboard doesn't make me drip with excitement or anything - "oh man, you could type so fast!" - oh you can, can you? Faster than you can TALK?), but I guess it has its uses. If I'm at a bar, or some noisy place where I can't hear anything, it's useful. And on occasion it's useful for asking 20 people the same question at once ("Did I merely look handsome today, or did I look STRIKINGLY handsome today?"). That's about the only time I text anyone, but I get that a lot of people find actually speaking to people awkward, and find it simpler to just send text messages. I've got no issues with that. By definition, some of us need to be socially awkward to make the rest of us normal. Ha. Just kidding, don't spam with angry comments.

What does bother me, though, is that text messaging seems to have permeated the world in other, more horrendous ways. I feel like we're creating new reasons to send text messages just because we love doing it so much. Have you ever seen those commercials for new ringtones? Here's a 10-second clip of "Maneater". Wouldn't that be ridiculously awesome if that was your ringtone? Well, text *69842 now and it's yours! Who was today's player of the day? Text 38 to vote for Tom Brady. When the winner is announced, neither he nor you will have received anything, but isn't it fun to hit "send"?!?! Rich mentioned he saw this commercial the other day where you hear the noise of a fire siren (text 913!) and then birds chirping (text 914!). The absolute worst in my opinion are those "joke of the day" things. If I correctly understand how this works, I text some number, will pay something, but for doing so, someone will send me a hilarious joke I can use to make all my friends laugh! I'll be the life of the party! If I know you, and you use this service, we are officially not on speaking terms.