I do most of my talking with my thumbs.

I was chatting via BlackBerry Messenger with Hustle Mode’s Charles Anthony the other day, when he pointed out that in a world of BBM, text messaging, Twitter, facebook and G-mail chat, people no longer actually talk on the telephone. I couldn’t refute his point, because in the last year the majority of my contact with anyone has been through one of these mediums.

Remember when getting someone’s phone number actually led to dialing the number.   Now, when we get a number, there’s either inquiring as to whether or not he/she has a pin or debating if initial contact should be through a text message. How did we get to this point people?  When did we allow ourselves to dumb down our communication to 160 characters or less? Are we really that busy or have we simply gotten lazy?

I miss talking for hours on the phone. I miss hearing breathing patterns and laughter. I miss being able to determine whether or not someone can hold an actual conversation with me. Hell, even good old fashion talking-dirty-after-dark conversations have been replaced by sexting. I’m spending more time trying not to infer tone than I would if I’d just made a phone call in the first place. And being annoyed because I know for a fact that someone read the BBM message I just sent and didn’t reply.

Text messages are sweet and they can be a wonderful surprise. Who doesn’t like a midday “You were on my mind sexy” text? Text messaging however is more intrusive than a phone call. You can ignore a phone call or voicemail, but you can’t really block a text message. Text messages also don’t convey the level of feeling or emotion that a conversation does. Let’s be honest…I’m not balled over in a laughter induced tears every time I type LMAO. [insert BBM straight face emoticon here].

Text messaging cannot replace true telephone love.

—sueZette Yasmin Robotham

TAGS: Charles Anthony, Hustle Mode, JC Lodge, sueZette yasmin robotham