"Anne's comment that 'phoning seems impertinent' is a surprise."

Ronni--I might not use impertinent, but I do feel that phone calls are more intrusive than other forms of communication. It takes a stick of dynamite to make me dial/key push a telephone. I will walk 1/2 mile to avoid calling.

That said, I have never had texting enabled on my Smartphone - nor, the Internet. Subconsciously, I guess I feel that if someone wishes to hear from me - they will call me. Illogical, I know; but, it's embedded in (what I call) my brain.

At least with email and blogging, folks may decide whether it is convenient for them to pick up my message - although - I'll have to admit that many seem so addicted to the screen that they are obsessive about picking up those communications.

The more ways we have of communicating, the less real communication takes place. It is hard enough ensuring that good communication takes place, face-to-face, let alone through any other process.

Ronni:
I still remember my grandma's phone number (MI8-0540), nearly 60 years after her phone was disconnected.

The black bakelite phone, complete with party-line access at no extra charge, sat on the side of the cabinet to the left of the kitchen sink.

The handy location allowed her to eavesdrop on the partyline while she peered through the window over the sink at the neighbors' house, just in case they were doing aznything interestimg.

At the same time, she was washing the dishes,while my breakfast was cooking on the gas stove across the kitchen.

I have a cell phone on my kitchen counter...I must remember to charge it one of these days.

It just goes to show that we really are all different! I have no interest in games or music on my iPhone but I really do love a good heartwaming conversation with a daughter of an evening, by text, semi colons and all. One of them said she gets a fright when I phone, assuming it must be bad news!

Am with you all the way, Ronni. Have never texted and friends know better than to text me. You can't beat a good old fashioned phone call, although I have to admit, Skype with webcam is coming a close second.

Well, I for one agree with every single thing you say here! My daughter tried to teach me texting, and when I saw the process I immediately knew I didn't want to do it. I stopped going on Facebook because everyone's perpetually happy days and nights left me depressed that mine are not so cheery. I'm holding out on my cell phone that does nothing except make phone calls. I do not want or need a telephone that can go onto the Internet. When I leave my house it's a welcome break away from my desk. Sure, there have been times that it would be convenient to see what's playing at the movies while I'm on the bus and could get myself to a theater if I knew the schedule, but big deal. I'm a blogger and I'm as much of a computer whiz as I was a typist back in the day, and that is good enough for me.

Oh, yes, the grandkids do remain a problem: they only text, and so rarely respond to my emails. We love each other despite it all.

They all have a value, but I'm not keen on any aside from e mail and I was a convert almost immediately. I love seeing words in print! I abandoned a land line to save money, but my cell isn't smart. I'll admit I've wished it were on occasion when I'm out and would like to get directions or check a price.

I'm with Dee on 'call waiting'. Aside from true emergencies, there's no more effective way to make a person feel like they don't matter as much as the next call.

There is always a sense that elders who do not text or take up other new kinds of communication are Luddites and worse: old people who can't/won't keep up and who thereby prove they are out of the loop, doddering old fools.

But I wonder why we seem to be expected to adopt young people's technology and not vice versa.

No one ever suggests that the young ones who don't telephone or email should adapt to their parents' and grandparents' way of communicating.

New is not, by definition, better - something old people have far more experience at learning (the hard way over many years) than young people yet have. We might be on to something when we find texting as conversation to be too tedious and unfulfilling.

Skype is fine. I enjoy it. But hardly anyone I know - young or old - uses it much. So except for one or two people, it mostly sits there taking up space on my computer.

I loathe Facebook -- am only on it, and Twitter, because some people encounter my blog that way. Also, I'll occasionally tweet if I'm at something that is in the Tweet-stream, like a demonstration.

But, unlike Ronni, I like texting. My iPhone allows me to enter texts by voice as well as keyboard and it has learned to interpret my messages pretty accurately (or has it trained me? we don't know.)

I got into texting when I was traveling for work. A phone call home was a full scale interaction. A text could be silly and mundane without interrupting if the recipient was doing something more valuable than learning I was confronted with a eating a sea bass with the head still attached!!

That sort of thing works well for me -- texting goes mostly to my nearest and dearest.

Unless one counts the occasional comment here on TGB, I don't do social media in any way. (I understand the media, but I'm just not social). But I will give Facebook credit for making life easier for those who are into it: clicking on a "Like" button is much less exhausting than typing out "I really enjoyed all of those kitten collages you reposted today".

I cancelled my FB account after being hacked by opening a fake FB e-mail. I know, I know - I should have been smarter, but there you are.

I am all thumbs when I have to use the small keyboard on my Kindle and I would hate texting.

If it is intrusive when I call my kids they can take a message on their cell phones and call back when they are not driving or are busy elsewhere. I have no need for anything other than my captioned phones and my computer.

And I find it rude if someone takes a call when we are having lunch. Unless it's an emergency the caller can leave a number and the luncheon guest can return the call when we are no longer chatting.

Therefore, Ronni, you speak for me.

I agree with Jeri and largely with you, Ronni, as well. I hate cellphones and the high-volume yakking and whatever else many people feel free to do with them everywhere (including while driving!). Still, I have one and use it when necessary. Same for Facebook and Twitter. I don't text. I do email. I'm not a total technophobe, but neither do I need every whiz-bang new gadget or "app" that comes along.

In my opinion what is being lost to ever-advancing technology is the ability to put sentences together (i.e., write) in the English language. That will be viewed as a great loss generations from now, I believe, as future historians try to decipher our legacy.

Going to totally disagree with you about texting. My Dad, 93, is hard of hearing and can't negotiate the telephone very well anymore.

Texting is perfect for us; and, although we are 500 miles apart, we text every day. This kind of communication would be impossible on the phone.

Like Cop Car, I find the telephone very intrusive. Yes, it is an essential piece of equipment and yes I enjoy chatting to friends and I talk to my daughter on the phone for two hours at a time, which is wonderful (and works better for us than Skyping because Skype tethers both parties to their computers whereas cordless phones allow multitasking). But I much prefer scheduled calls to impromptu ones because then I can arrange my day to include them. For a writer, there is nothing worse than having the creative flow interrupted by the shrill, demanding voice of a telephone.
Email, for me, is the best invention ever. And I enjoy social networks too—including Facebook—because there, as with email, I get to decide when to interact and when to stay in my quiet cocoon.
Texting can be useful in certain situations but why anyone would actually choose to spend their entire day squinting at a four-inch screen and typing with their thumbs on keys the size of rice grains I cannot fathom.

Ronni, I share or did share your feelings about Facebook to the extent that about 18 months ago I deleted my account only to "enlist" again a few months later simply because everyone - or almost everyone - is on it. I have found one Facebook use that does send me into praise of Facebook. In December, my younger son took his life. One of his friends set up a Tribute Page. https://www.facebook.com/ConnorWalshTributePage?ref=stream

This to me, is better than a headstone, an obituary in a leading newspaper. This is what his friends, his generation felt about him. And being on Facebook it keeps on keeping on. It is a great comfort to me. When Facebook is used like this, I am all for it.

Ronni,
How can I view the video of your presentation on Aging?

Thank you.

Sheila Silver Halet--Clarification: I don't do FB, although I did for a year or two. I don't like how they play fast & loose with other peoples' information.

Jeri Reilly--Some of us are from an era when, if we had a phone at all (our first phone "number" was a long and two shorts), it was for use in emergencies or for "important" stuff. Many years of my life, I've had no phone at all (as "recently" as the 1980s). I never thought that I was important enough to make phone calls just for chatting, I guess.

One advantage of texting that has not been mentioned (or - did I miss it?) is that, in an emergency situation, texting may get delivered where a phone call might not. It takes less bandwidth/less power to get a text message to a repeater. (Similar to, in the old days, when we hams used continuous wave radio signals rather than amplitude or frequency modulated modulated signals to get through in an emergency, on low power.)

I must say, I do agree with most of what you write, Ronni.

However, I do hesitate now when I think about calling a phone number and will choose to text in many instances, or do nothing.

In the old days, we called 'home phones' and there was comfort knowing that the person can answer or let it go to an answering machine. If someone wasn't home, they didn't get the call until they got home and listened to their messages... maybe.

Anyway, now that everyone has their cell phone in their hand, I'm worried that my ring-tone will be going off in the middle of a class/concert/conversation, etc. etc.

I know it's not MY problem - they should shut off their phone, but it does make me stop and think, "Should I text instead so I don't seem 'impertinent'"???

This is such a good conversation. I really appreciate your honesty. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

I do not want to be controlled by a phone (or device) of any sort - it is there to serve me, not the other way around. Observing the world nowadays where it seems that a lot of people do opt to be controlled by their phone/device (can't leave home without it, sorry must take this call during a lunch,...), I do suppose I am the odd one, but I'm comfortable with that.

We live in an age of distraction. Sometimes it seems that the secret purpose of many of our new technological gadgets is to hijack our awareness. As a result, the mind is trained to behave in a hyper-active manner, and loses the ability to focus, concentrate, or contemplate for any meaningful period of time.

The ideas of "long form communication" and "meandering conversations" are wonderful. Meaningful thought and conversation requires continuity, focus, clarity, and imagination. Short, isolated burst of thought might be good to share an information bits and bytes, but certainly does not support quality of thougt.

I have even noticed that some people seem to difficulty reading anything longer than a few paragraphs. New technologies can foster a feeling of impatience and an unfortunate need for immediate gratification. This impairs our quality of thought.

I do make use of various technologies and I will learn new ones as they come out, but I am also on guard to prevent myself from having my mind pushed and shoved into too many different directions.

And indeed, there is the danger of over-communicating and having a great deal to say about very little.

Having your cell phone on (and answering it) during a restaurant lunch with ME is not going to be appreciated. How rude!