SHOULD YOU CALL, EMAIL OR TEXT?

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?

Should you call, email or text? Seniors prefer calling.
Should you call, email or text? Many seniors avoid texting for various reasons.

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.