Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Confessions of an "obsessed texter"....

I will be the first to admit that I am addicted to my phone. My kids will be the second to admit it. I often justify sending or responding to a text when I am engaged in a conversation by telling myself that I will be more focused if I can just "get it off my mind". I LOVE texting. I think it is easier than talking. It is more convenient than talking. My shoulder is not as sore at the end of the day from holding my phone to my ear. However, it is often a distraction. I am not confessing this because I am going to give up texting. However, I will continue my quest to be a better listener. The listening gene was not passed out to the Zundel family.

There is another interesting fact about texting. There is so much potential for miscommunication. Twice in the last week I have received texts from friends that were meant for their daughters. It is very important to remember when one is texting that you don't write anything that you wouldn't want the whole world to read, because you never know where it might go. I often send a text to a friend in the ward that has the same name as one of the caregivers at my dad's. She always sends me a text back asking if I need her to do a shift there. I am always looking for good examples of miscommunication, and the perfect one came across my phone this very day. I am in the process of picking out a grave marker for My Guy and I. I ordered a marker more than a month ago. It is a beautiful light grey granite with perfect black streaks. The stone man and I have been exchanging emails about the inscriptions. Of course it has to be just perfect! I was looking at the latest proof and was wondering if my name looked like it was taking more than its fair share of the space, because it is so long. I sent off an email to ask his opinion about "stacking" my name. I hadn't heard a response for a few days, and so the following exchange took place tonight:

mk: "Hi. I wondered if you got my email about my name being too big? Would it look better stacked? I want it to look balanced. Am I driving you crazy? m. lewis"
him: "Yup and I haven't been to that office yet. I will be there tomorrow."
mk: "Yup I am driving you crazy? Or yup you got the email.?"
him: "Email yup LOL"
mk: "Thanks!"


4 comments:

Jennifer said...

Glad to know I am not the only Zundel that the listening gene skipped. I also love texting and email.

Morgan, Lindsay, Max and London said...

don't give up texting on me!! i can't handle listening to you AND my kids yelling in my face both at the same time!! but i know what you mean...and not only that, can we add a "tone" to the texting? sarcasm doesn't come through texting....

mk said...

So we can't "do" sarcasm. Doesn't pass the nice face, nice words, nice voice test!

Norton Family said...

me too! i LOVE texting (i too wish we could come up with a "tone" button - great idea linds!) however i'm afraid with all the texting i do i'm really not LISTENING to what the other person is saying... people need to be heard too! but for now i will work on my texting spelling :)