TOA (Text On Arrival)

Having no teenagers in the house, I was unaware of this new trend until I read this article in the local paper. When one teen goes to visit another, instead of ringing the doorbell, they send them a "I'm at your front door" text. Seems like a big waste of technology...I mean what's easier than pushing a doorbell. Logistically, what happens if the person recieving the text is in the bathroom. Do current manners require that you text back an "I'm on the throne...be there in 5 minutes dude" text. Guess I'm hopelessly old-school.

I don't text (and have blocked texting on my phone, since I am too cheap to pay anything extra for texting), but I have noticed that most teens (and some older-than-teens) seem to prefer texting over talking on their cell phone, even when both parties are in a situation where talking would be no problem. 

I have read articles recently that more cell phone users now text than talk.  I have found this practice somewhat annoying when a person I am talking to in person is texting someone else at the same time we are talking!  I would really rather pause our conversation while he "finger talks" to someone else, juist like we would pause if he had gotten a "verbal" call on his phone.

Since texting is so horribly dangerous while driving, and states are enacting laws to try to prevent it before more people get killed, perhaps this will "cool down" the popularity of texting a little (though I really doubt if it will have any effect).

I wonder what people sounded like when they said things like "I don't need no television to show me things....I can hear everything I want to hear on the radio."

New technology catches on with younger people first - always.  I am not usually one to stereotype, but many "older" people are more set in their ways and will refuse to try anything new until the technology is shoved down their throat.  How long ago was it that you thought you didn't need a cell phone at all ("if anyone wants to talk to me, they can call me at home!")?

And, the part of "texting while driving" that is dangerous is not the texting part.  It is the driving part.  Well...it is also the being distracted part.  But, you can be distracted by a phone, an argument in the car, or the fast food you just picked up from the drive-thru.  I don't know about you, but I hate driving in front of the shopping center that houses the local Mickey D's at prime lunch rush, because there is going to be some moron paying way more attention to his Quarter Pounder than he is to the road in front of him.

6star
....  I have found this practice somewhat annoying when a person I am talking to in person is texting someone else at the same time we are talking! .....

There's another phrase for this (IMO).  It's called being rude. 

I'm guilty of texting in organizing a lunch meeting and statusing arrivals. I've embraced it for some things but since I didn't pick up the monthly option for unlimited texting I severely limit it.

The Travelin Man

New technology catches on with younger people first - always.  I am not usually one to stereotype, but many "older" people are more set in their ways and will refuse to try anything new until the technology is shoved down their throat. 

It's not that I'm against the technology (although I do find texting terribly tedious). I just thought it was ridiculous to type & send a text message when all you had to do was push the doorbell.

Can't say that I can argue with you there, cavandre.  I am not saying that it is exactly the same situation, but I remember when I was in high school, I had a friend that refused to come to the door at my house. He would pull up in his car to pick me up and would honk his horn.  It drove my mother up a wall - and one day, she just went ballistic on the guy.  She told him that it was inconsiderate to her and our neighbors (no argument from me there, either) and taught me the lesson that when one is picking someone up or dropping someone off, it is no trouble to get of the car to walk to the door.

In my buddy's defense, he was in sheer terror of my mother.  Heck, everyone was afraid of my mother.  She was a bear.  He really thought - and I believe him - that he was doing his best NOT to bother her.

So, it is possible - in some small way - that this is just the modern day version of honking the horn.

The Travelin Man


In my buddy's defense, he was in sheer terror of my mother.  Heck, everyone was afraid of my mother.  She was a bear.  He really thought - and I believe him - that he was doing his best NOT to bother her.

Travelin Man's Mother??
 

Coming from the guy who thought he would find pigs roaming around the rural streets of Iowa, I guess...

I remember laughing at Maxwell Smart when he answered his shoe.  Now my car is smarter than me.

I'm not sure if you can consider texting and advancement in communications. If anything, it's regressive when used with a device that supports voice communications. I don't see the point in texting if it takes longer then to make a call. By extension,arriving at your door, a knock or phone call is sufficent. Unless there is a reason such as texting for record communications or broadcasting a message to a group, it's silly to use it if you can just plain call someone. Depending on the plan, some charge extra for texting over the base rate anyways.

Regarding the rudeness. This is something that's really got my goat as was mentioned above. Talking to someone and they interrupt to answer a phone or text. I give someone my undivided attention when engaging in a conversation and expect the same. Then you have the people that take calls and make loud conversations in a public place as if nobody around them exists. You know, in the quiet lobby or in an elevator...and they are talking at full volume. Then you have the employee in customer contact/service type jobs that are either on their phone headset continuously, texting, or listening to music w/ their MP3 players. You have to try to compete or interrupt with the conversation or music to get their attention...and the employers permit it. Worse yet, they are indignant that you interrupted them. 

I do that quite often with friends whose apartments don't have buzzers that will let me in the building or whose buzzers don't work.

We don't text much (those darn buttons are too small!) but my partner will send me photos from work or while on a business trip now and then.

I am a part of the texting generation and I use it quite a lot to talk with my dad when both of us are at work when it would be considered in poor taste to talk a lot during work but with texting we can keep up communication and still get work done.

I have never heard of this TOA though and it does seem rather silly especially when most of my friends and I just let ourselves into the house or apartment rather than wait at the door but that is also because we know each other very well.

Soccer862923


I am a part of the texting generation and I use it quite a lot to talk with my dad when both of us are at work when it would be considered in poor taste to talk a lot during work but with texting we can keep up communication and still get work done.

I know it is really none of my business, but what kind of work do you and your dad do that each of you can get work done while texting (without breaking your thought train or concentration on the job you are doing)?  I can do multi-tasking, but this sounds like it might put a person to the ultimate test unless they are performing a repetitive task that does not require your attention and physical use of your hands.

 

"Lady, let me tell you. Kids today

are lazy. They're not going to muscle-

up the energy to knock on doors any-

more. It's doorbells. Doorbells, I tell

you. They're the future."

Davydd

I've embraced it for some things but since I didn't pick up the monthly option for unlimited texting I severely limit it.

We don't have a texting plan yet because we're both Thumb Grandmas, but we have a good friend who texts her whole phone list 'happy halloween,' 'merry christmas', etc. and when we hear both our phones get a text at the same time, Julie goes 'she charged us both with that thing!'

6star

Soccer862923


I am a part of the texting generation and I use it quite a lot to talk with my dad when both of us are at work when it would be considered in poor taste to talk a lot during work but with texting we can keep up communication and still get work done.

I know it is really none of my business, but what kind of work do you and your dad do that each of you can get work done while texting (without breaking your thought train or concentration on the job you are doing)?  I can do multi-tasking, but this sounds like it might put a person to the ultimate test unless they are performing a repetitive task that does not require your attention and physical use of your hands.

I guess that I should clarify my statement a little bit more because I feel like I may have given the wrong impression. My dad and I both have positions that require us to be at desks in front of computers for a majority of the day, engineer and manager. When I say all the time I mean usually around 4-5 times a day 5 or 6 times a week. It usually takes less than a min to send a text or reply so taking a min here or there to stop won't really kill a work day.  Still take less time out of our work day than the chain smokers that leave 3-4 times an hour for a smoke, nothing against smokers, but just an observation I have made over the past few years based upon my experiences.

Admittedly we are both very good at multitasking so it really doesn't tax us to text while we are working on something at the same time. Just like other things it just takes practice and getting used to it, but certainly isn't the "ultimate test" as you put it.

Wouldn't Instant Messenger or another PM app be more productive? What we use from workstation to workstation and doesn't detract much form the task at hand and a lot more convenient then using a texting device. Both of you are in positions that most office enviornments nobody would question your interactions anyways.

Thanks for the clarification.  I was imagining the type of texting that I have observed in many teenagers, where their primary interest and physical engagement seem to be texting and their "sideline" is everything else, including the work they are supposed to be occupied with.  Since I assumed you were beyond the high school years, I hoped you (and your dad) were taking your jobs seriously.

I suppose I am getting to the stage of the"grouchy old man" (though I hope not), but I have come across so many younger people who are in no way dedicated to doing their job well, giving their employer or customer full measure and then some, and instead have the attitude that "they have the right" to do something or "someone" owes them this or that just because they happen to be living on this planet.  I am thankful that you and your dad are not in this category.

Don't get me wrong, we have days where we will get distracted and do a mini texting marathon but those days are few and far in between and usually don't last for more than 20 min. Both my dad and I work through our lunches and typically put in 9 hr days so we really don't feel guilty when that happens.

There are a bunch of people my age that do have that attitude of arrogance and deserving of everything and working for nothing and to be honest it really disgusts me. I mean most of the people my generation do not have a work ethic or drive that is worth more than 2 cents an hour.  My parents instilled a strong work ethic and you only deserve what you work for so I take my job seriously.