For the first few  decades of my life, the only means of remote communication with another person was by telephone or snail mail. As a teen, I spent hours talking on the phone with boyfriends and girlfriends.  What about?  With the girls, it was usually about boys.  With the boys, a lot of gossip and complaining about parents.  When we left town for  college or  work, we wrote letters.  It was sometimes  difficult writing a letter in cursive, but a joy to receive. However, both of those options for connecting with others are almost obsolete.  First, email replaced phone calls, and now texting has replaced e mail.  Consequently,  the choices are complicated for seniors.  Should you call  call, email or text family , friends, and business people?

Most people my age refuse to text.  My husband says  arthritis makes texting  impossible, but I suspect he wouldn’t do it anyway.  When you ask a person  why they dislike phone calls, they’re liable to admit it’s because they consider themselves introverts.  I can understand that.  I used to experience social anxiety when talking on the phone to a new boyfriend or girlfriend.  Or, as a suburban housewife, calling someone and asking them to dinner.  What if I couldn’t think what to say, or they didn’t seem friendly?  Sometimes, my voice sounded too high or low to my own ears.  If only I’d had the luxury of choice.

I chose e mail  as soon as I learned to use a computer.  Didn’t have to worry about sounding awkward or strained.  Could go back over my e mail before hitting send.  It’s still a pretty smooth way to connect  if you really have something to ask, or  explain. And you aren’t bothering people with a phone call at a busy time.  Trouble is,  people started getting so much spam email that they missed reading personal e mails.  Most people under 60 now seem to prefer texting.  I resisted it for years.  And then, one day, the whole texting thing kicked into  my psyche.

Texting is cool.  I love sending and receiving pictures that I don’t want to put out on Facebook.  With the pic collage app, I can send pretty, personal greeting cards.  The uses are endless. You don’t have to make awkward conversation, or spend precious time composing e mails. If you’re a senior who thinks texting is too complicated, you will find that it simplifies your life.  And helps extroverts keep in touch with  introverts who don’t like talking on the telephone.