University Declares a Week Without Social Media

[AlphaFrog]

Ok, I'm totally taking this train in another direction, but whatever...

When someone is so careless sending you text messages that you can barely make out what they are trying to communicate, do you feel obligated to read/respond to them? I'm not talking about text-speak like "b back 4 dinner @6 after sk8ing" (and even that drives me crazy, but I understand it) - I'm talking about people who can't bother with the 5 seconds it takes to proof a text and make sure it's actually comprehensible.

My mom keeps doing it, and it drives me batshit crazy. She blames it on her learning disability, but somehow her LD didn't stop her from getting two college degrees, including a Master's.

[DrPhil]

I would tell the person that I will ignore their texts if I can't understand them.

I don't have anyone who texts me in a manner that I can't understand. I also don't have anyone who texts me that often. They know that I'm not a huge fan of texting beyond necessity. My parents don't really know what a text message is and how to do it. I think I received a test text a long time ago from both of them. It made me laugh like crazy. It was so cute. There's no need to text when you're in your 70s. It's wrong on so many levels. LOL.

[ree-Xi]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

Man, text messaging would have taken forever with a rotary phone...

A friend of mine in high school's parents still had a rotary phone in 1988. By choice. With a rotary, there was no call waiting. I was never good at dialing rotary phones. It usually took at least two or three tries.

Back then, you also dialed "0" to reach an operator who could:

• Help you make international, collect, "person to person" and multiple-party calls
• Interrupt phone calls for an emergency (before/without call waiting, if the phone number was in use, you got a busy signal).
• Provide phone numbers
• Call the police/fire/ambulance, etc. As a little kid, I was taught "0" and not 911.
• Tell you the time. We did this when power went out and you needed to know the time, during the power outage, and when it came back (to reset your clocks). No, we never wore watches, lol.
• Help you with phone service problems.

[agzg]

Originally Posted by ree-Xi

Back then, you also dialed "0" to reach an operator who could:

• Help you make international, collect, "person to person" and multiple-party calls
• Interrupt phone calls for an emergency (before/without call waiting, if the phone number was in use, you got a busy signal).
• Provide phone numbers
• Call the police/fire/ambulance, etc. As a little kid, I was taught "0" and not 911.
• Tell you the time. We did this when power went out and you needed to know the time, during the power outage, and when it came back (to reset your clocks). No, we never wore watches, lol.
• Help you with phone service problems.

My grandmother was one of these operators. I like 411, but they don't do all that!

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

When someone is so careless sending you text messages that you can barely make out what they are trying to communicate, do you feel obligated to read/respond to them? . . . .

My mom keeps doing it, and it drives me batshit crazy.

If it was someone like my mom, they'd get a "huh?" back. Otherwise, they'd be ignored.