Column: Something About Nothing

I went over my limit on my text messaging for my cell phone last month. I looked at the bill and asked myself how that was possible?

I remember the first text message I ever received. I heard a beeping in my living room one night and could not figure out what it was. It was my cell phone. I then had to figure out why it was beeping. I realized it was a message from my son. I answered not sure if I had got it right.

This last year I signed up for a message plan since I seemed to be receiving some text messages from my kids. My husband opted out of the plan since he was never going to text. I had heard all the stories about the teenagers going over their cell plan bill with thousands of texts. I couldn’t imagine ever using up my 250 messages.

I looked at my bill and thought “I couldn’t have used that many texts.” But I did and more. I text more than I talk these days. My kids and I seem to keep in touch every day via text messages throughout the day. It might just be a blurb updating a thought or a conversation that we think of in the middle of the day. It takes less time to text than it does to dial the phone and talk and I can be doing other things (not driving) at the same time. In fact, it is easier to get in touch with my kids by text because they never answer their cell phones. I hear that complaint from other parents, too.

My friends have also started texting. We exchange messages throughout the day. My spelling has gotten better while I punch those little buttons although sometimes I have to take my glasses off to see the keyboard.

Our phone rang the other day and it was our cell phone carrier informing my husband we had exceeded our plan. I immediately started explaining when I heard him on the phone and was waiting for the scowling look. The phone conversation was not about my bill but his. Apparently he has gotten caught up on the texting bandwagon and racked up a charge so the provider was suggesting he add texting to his plan.

How things change in a few months. Every day I hear someone my age tell me that they can’t possibly learn to use all of the things on their new cell phone. I also hear that they don’t want anything to do with text messages. I was the same way. Look at me now. I have bought into the hype not because I wanted to, but because it came necessary if I wanted to keep in closer touch with my kids, and I am having fun with it.

I will say there is nothing to begin to compare to the human voice. Skype might be even better since it adds video to the human voice and my grandchildren can talk to me and show me their artwork over the computer.

I normally wouldn’t call my daughter about something that I was watching on TV but a quick text and a short word gives us conversation while we are watching something of mutual interest. A text from my son informs us that they are in the basement during a tornado warning and letting us know where to look if we don’t hear back from them. Text messaging has brought a different kind of conversation into my life.

Yes, I will admit to all the teenagers in the world that they are on to something. I like to text. You can teach an old dog new tricks.

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net.