EDITOR’S CORNER
Ididn’t know this until I read it in a column written by someone I really like. It sounds on point.
Apparently a number of people now prefer to text rather than actually speak over our—genuflect—smart phones.
Remember, back around the time Teddy Roosevelt charged up San Juan Hill, we all had telephones which were mounted on the wall or sat on a desk or table
Got to where it seemed like about half the time you got a call it was a telemarketer or someone trying to get you to sign a new contract with a power company or take out a warranty on your car that lasted until the next geologic age.
And then came...answering machines.
Remember They were little boxes easy to hook up if you were somewhat technologically gifted and light enoujh to | prett| far if ou were like me.
Now they were sold, allegedly, so callers could leave us messages if we were Ëaza from our phones.È
(Wow, that looks weird, Ëaza| from our phones.È Remember when that was actually possible )
But you know what we used them for? Come on, admit it. We used them to screen our calls.
When ze heard ËL have this great opportunity for |ou... ze hit the delete eutton quicker than your teen replies to a text from her boyfriend.
Where as even a no-callers list ze could sijn up for. There were actually a zhole eunch of Ëno callers lists and donÎt recall an| of them every working very well. I think I got more calls after signing up for some of those.
Then came the cellphone revolution and we didn’t have to worry about that any more. They couldn’t get our numbers through such antiquated things as phone books and bliss reigned.
Eut the|Êzhoever Ëthe|È really are—somehow found a za to find out our numeers.
I don’t know how, but I am now getting calls from what sounds like the same old gang.
And that’s why a number of folks are preferring to initiate their own conversations by texting. Apparently the Annoying Callers have yet to fijure out ho to initiate a text conversation that starts: ËWonderful opportunit| to sign a new contract with us and save mone|.È
Except for my phone provider. They do that all the time. At least I know how they got my phone number.
The column I read related how the writer got a call from a number he did not recognize and, after some soul searching, actually decided to answer it.
It turned out to be customer service for an item he had bought. The situation was resolved quickly and before the service rep hung up she said, a little wist-full|/ Ëthann |ou so much for answering, it seems like hardly anyone will actually anszer e voice an more.È
They text, you see.
That has happened to me. I have gotten involved in a number of text conversations which go on so long I wonder why we j ust don’t do all this in a call.
For one thing, my phone auto-complete will change words on me and this has led to some embarrassing situations, about which the less said the better.
Another problem is if you are a slow texter you will often get a second, even third, text while you are repl|in to their first one.
It almost makes me want to call and actually ta l k to them. I know, I have awfully bad manners.
But I’ll let you in on a secret I’ve found. You can take a pencil and piece of paper, write a non-keyboard, text, put it in an envelope, stamp it and...
Someone else will even deliver it for you
Technology never ceases to amaze.
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