txt me, i'll txt you

My parents received a rather hefty package in the mail last week. It was my cell phone bill. And it was 70 pages long.

Now, this incredible length had nothing to do with any actual speaking on the phone. It was not from phone calls to friends who were studying abroad, not from long talks with my brother who is a med student at Yale, not even from millions of calls to & from the hundreds of friends, foe, and family in my address book. The culprit of the commodious bill was one offender & one offender only: texting. In the span of time in which my mom sent 400 texts, I had managed to send over 4,000 of these 158-character missives.

Which brings me to wonder why, in a day and age when we (I know I'm not the only one) are so easily accessible to one another, why human beings still lack the actual necessary skills to effectively communicate.

Don't get me wrong. We can still form sentences - although in some cities, due to instant message and text shorthand schools are finding much to their dismay that their younger students cannot write at their grade level - and we can still say such sentences out loud to another. Talking itself is difficult enough to interpret. I can't tell you how many times I've debated with friends what exactly that cute guy from poli sci meant when he said he'd call later (Would he or wouldn't he? He wouldn't say he would if he wasn't going to...Maybe he was just trying to be nice? Or maybe he just wants to study, he didn't mean I'll call you call you...) We still wonder whether or not a compliment on our sweater or English paper was really genuine. We aren't sure whether "I'll see you at 9" means 9...or 9:30 (or, with some people, 10).

In fact, texting makes it even more difficult to tell what a person is actually saying to us. We can't see the expression on their faces or the tell tale hand gestures that imply either a joke or completely seriousness. Sometimes, due to autocorrect spelling, even the sender doesn't communicate the exact words they planned on saying. Even more troubling, in some cases, is that we aren't even sure who the sender actually is. Sure, we know the phone number, but anyone in my house could pick up my phone and send a message to anyone in my address book while I'm in the shower (Desperate Housewives, anyone?).

In a world of interconnectedness and supposed openness, however, the only thing we even have the ability to control is our own reaction upon receiving these messages. Whether or not we get upset over something meant as silly but taken as a statement is entirely up to us.

So I guess nothing about communication has changed with texting - besides the ability to reach one another no matter how far away or busy we are. Because even if I am able to read a text from a potential suitor during a meeting at work, I'm still going to wonder if "ttyl" means "a few hours later" or "a few days later" or, quite possibly, "never."