This is Only a Text

This is only a text: On any given day, I get three or four text messages from my 10-year-old sister, Julie. Very few make sense, and very few seem to be written specifically for me. The first one she ever sent me said, "idk means I don't know." Frequently she just texts the word "hi," but sometimes I'm lucky enough to get nonsensical text forwards promising bad luck if I don't immediately pass on the message that "girlfriends r like diamonds cuz u always want more than 1" to 10 people.
Or whatever.
A few months ago, my toddler dropped my cellphone on the ground and broke it in half. Instead of shelling out $100 to buy a new one, I wrapped the phone back together with masking tape (so very retro!) and decided to make due. The one problem is I can't see the letters on my phone to text replies. So even though Julie hasn't heard back from me in months, she continues to lol with me like I'm her bff. The best part is that she is texting me during the day, so I know she's using her phone during school.
I taught at Brigham Young University a few years ago, and from what I could tell none of my students were sending text messages during class. But they probably were. Heaven knows they were surfing the Internet on their wireless laptops while pretending to take notes. And my two high school-aged siblings assure me that all their friends have the keys memorized and can send texts blindly from phones hidden inside pockets and books. Any idiot can do it, they say.
Really, it's a skill the older generations could use. Think of how much more fun Friday management meetings could be if you spent the entire time discussing the previous night's "Grey's Anatomy" episode via text. You could while away the hours in traffic school, Sunday school, PTA meetings, work -- all while catching up with your closest friends.
Sure, like me, it may take you an hour to compose each line of the text message. But is that better than the alternative of paying attention to the task at hand? Waiting until later for actual face-to-face communication? Idk folks, idk.
-- Elyssa AndrusThis story appeared in
The Daily Herald on page B1 on May 9, 2007