Community Chat

[brii]

Knowing your teen arrived safely or is on her way home by text is perfectly fine with me. No need for a phone call.

It doesn't replace conversation. It's just peace of mind.

[Shorty2U]

I do not text using a cellphone. My grown children and grandchildren text to my email address. I type back via my laptop (to their phones), using code and abbreviation. The reason? They told me they can not read a lot in a text, it gets cut off. Thus I shorten my messages or send a few messages to tell them one thing. I might add, I prefer speaking on a telephone yet! My children call me but my son calls me more than my daughter. Due to her work schedule she sends me more texts to email than my son!

[VanSleepy]

I use proper spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar when I text. Or at least proper as far as I know ha. If I am ready to hit send and notice a mistake, I go back and fix it. When someone texts just a few words, sometimes I don't know what they're trying to say. I appreciate full sentences :-) I do get laughed at by one son because I always respond to a text with at least an "OK". He says not everything needs a reply lol

[Kalli]

If I'm in a hurry, I don't bother with correct punctuation or caps when texting.

-Kalli

[FUTURE]

I still use proper grammar about 95% of the time.

[Big Sister]

On 11/23/2014 kittymomNC said:

I don't text. I'm "very" old school, and I hate it even on these boards, when people type "u" for "you", or "ur" for "you're", don't use any punctuation, and initials of all sorts that have meanings I don't understand - like BTW for "by the way". I know some of them, but there are others I see from time to time that I don't have a clue what they mean and have to try and google them if I really want to know. It's a whole new language, and I don't even want to learn it. I'm a firm believer in proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. and I'm just too darned old to change now!

[raven-blackbird]

to the OP...............I think it depends on what generation you're from.......................raven

[gloriajean]

I use punctuation always! I love my smart phone (daughter's old one) easier for texting.

Now someone mentioned about why not just call instead of texting? When my brother-in-law fell from his deer stand a bunch of feet, and cracked his back - in the wilderness where there's no reception, thankfully he could text his son who came right away and took him to the hospital.

[AnikaBrodie]

IMHO, punctuation is important when texting, or when writing in longhand. Why would you not do it?

[Cha1k]

I love these threads on texting.

So many 'older' posters (hey, I'm 64) are dead set against this new form of communication, but here they are --- sitting in front of a computer sending messages to strangers on a chat board. If someone had told us 30 years ago that we'd be logging on to a shopping channel (gasp.....shopping on TV?) forum and spending hours reading and responding to mostly meaningless messages, we'd have said they were nuts!

Ironic, don't you think?

Back in the 90's I was a chat room host on AOL. My mom and dad came to visit during one of my scheduled hours of moderating a needlepoint chat. They sat there amazed that I was communicating with needleworkers from across the entire country, all of whom were strangers. My dad was fascinated. My mom, not so much. She kept asking me why I'd want to talk to strangers about needlepoint. She never did understand my curiosity with computers and technology.

As others have indicated on this thread....if you want to stay in communication with teenagers you will have to learn texting. They absolutely detest making phone calls.