So my youngest child (who is fully an adult\u00a0living\u00a0in LA) and I were driving to do some Christmas returns today and she said to me, “So I was texting a friend about meeting for a movie tonight and I said, ” I am feeling nostalgic, maybe I’ll call.” I sat at the stop light. \u00a0Pondered for a moment and then I\u00a0asked, ” Did you at one time\u00a0talk\u00a0on the phone a lot with her and now you have\u00a0lost\u00a0touch? Why were you feeling nostalgic about calling?”<\/p>\n
“Oh, mom,” she said brushing off the question as though fending off the smell of a bad cigar. \u00a0“No one calls\u00a0any more. \u00a0It’s all text. \u00a0Calling is so, (pause) so old fashioned.”<\/p>\n
She went on to say the friend did not text back; didn’t laugh at her witty retort and that she had texted her again to say, “Why didn’t you respond to my joke?” And the\u00a0friend\u00a0had written back, as in wrote back in text language on her phone, “What should I have done? Said ha ha??”<\/p>\n
There you have it. \u00a0Why the generation behind us old folk has lost the art of tone; the joy of innuendo\u00a0in conversation. They don’t talk face to face or even room to room anymore. \u00a0They text. \u00a0Under the dinner table. From the toilet. \u00a0In the middle of the movie. \u00a0I see them everywhere, the little\u00a0flash lights\u00a0of their phone faces\u00a0popping\u00a0up like fireflies in the dark.<\/p>\n
In the movie:<\/p>\n
“BTW, did you like that line?”<\/p>\n
“Yeah, it was sort of funny.”<\/p>\n
“Do you want to hold hands?”<\/p>\n
“LOL–I would drop my phone!”<\/p>\n
Married couple texting in bed after a fight:<\/p>\n
“I think I am done with you.”<\/p>\n
“Just thinking the same thing.”<\/p>\n
“Good so that’s it. \u00a0Light’s out?”<\/p>\n
“Perfect, but I can’t reach it. \u00a0The lamp’s on your side.”<\/p>\n
Fingers fly, heads stay bowed, rooms are silent with\u00a0animated\u00a0conversation. They give new meaning to the\u00a0expression, “You’re all thumbs.” Now it is a compliment.<\/p>\n