October 2013
I miss the days before every man and his dog had a mobile phone.. when if you really wanted to speak to or see someone you’d call their house phone (remember that?) or, God forbid, call for them and actually spend some face-to-face quality time.
Now texting takes precedent.. you can go for weeks of not actually seeing someone, but throwing a few texts their way and you’re still ‘close’. I’m quite confident that I’m probably the worst texter backerer.. ever. I always think I’ve replied, but really I’ve just read it and done something else instead.. and so, several days go by sans reply. Its not me trying to be rude or anything, I’m just forgetful. The blessing curse of iphone messaging letting us know when that person has read and then simply ignored our textual offering makes these kinda situations even more tricky. Ignorance never goes down well.. and it just makes you look, well, ignorant.
Similarly social media is the bane of many people’s lives. I’m sure me and Jeremy Kyle aren’t the only ones in our hate for Facebook and the like. ‘It causes more trouble than its worth’ is surely the understatement of the century. Its like a minefield for seeing things we wish we hadn’t or a breeding ground for argumentative indirect statuses.
Twitter, although generally the less guilty party of the two, still causes problems.
At the grand old age of 22, these things seem to be the root of any disagreement or crossed words amongst friends of mine.
They didn’t text me back.
They tweeted this.
They posted that photo on Facebook.
and so on and so forth.
We’re so well-versed in indirect-ion ourselves, we can’t help but take everything personally.
At least when I was back at school, anyone you fell out with you were forced to see them everyday in History or Science or something. One friend I fell out with over borrowing a book or whatever decided to take the silent approach.. an oldie but a goodie, and in a German lesson she came out with the confusing yet brilliant
“I’m not giving you the silent treatment, I’m just not talking to you”
But those words were at least coming out of her mouth and weren’t being private messaged to me on Facey B. Needless to say, we were friends by the end of the day.
I won’t lie I tend to use Facebook to post endless music videos, and Twitter to talk to myself more than to anyone else. I just find trying to have any ‘serious’ conversation in text form often ends in disaster. Things get taken the wrong way, or are read into more than they ever were intended to be. And despite the clear need, they’ve yet to invent a sarcasm font.
Its kinda boring me now. Why can’t we just talk to each other? Surely, things would be less confusing..?
If you want me, call my house phone.
cattface.com 