I think we’re texting ourselves to death.
I was reading a story by a relationship therapist who claimed that Canadians text 8 billion messages a month.
The point was something like: “How can anyone have a relationship when there’s all that texting going on?”
That seemed like a lot to me, so I went to the Internet and did some research. No matter how you slice it, it the guy’s right. We do a terrific – or is that terrible – amount of texting.
According to one source, we send 227 million text messages a day or 10 million an hour. Another says Canadians send 2,500 messages a second for a total of 78 billion a year.
It’s easy to conclude we’re all thumbs.
These numbers correspond to my anecdotal survey: nine times out of 10, wherever I go, everyone else is looking down. I’m the only one looking up.
I’ve tried to pretend to look down and be like everyone else, but my heart’s not really in it. I have to admit I’m tired of texting, tired of tweeting, tired of email, tired of not talking to other people.
Other people are actually pretty interesting, but only if you can get them not texting. They are also not very interesting if their fingers creep toward their smart phone (41 per cent of Canadians says they keep their cell phone in reach at all times), nor are they interesting when they try to talk to you and text at the same time (18 per cent. At least they’re trying).
It starts to get interesting when they try to drive and text at the same time, but not in a good way. An editor at Car and Driver found that it took longer to stop when he was texting than when he was legally drunk – an extra 70 feet, which is enough to drive you straight into the nearest tree.
So here I am texting you and here you are reading this text. Whoops!
I hope you find this text interesting. I hope it encourages you to put away your smart phone and look up.
Perhaps you’re not driving into the back end of the car in front of you at this very moment. Bonus. That means it’s not too late to put the phone away and start relating to other people, e.g. wife, parents, friends, colleagues, perfect strangers. It doesn’t matter. They’ve been so busy texting, none of them will recognize you anyway.
Start small. Smile. Remember? That’s something you do with your face, not your thumbs.