On Monday I sent a text and got no response. I sent many more text messages throughout the week. Many many more. And none of them got responses. It was a busy week, and I figured everyone else in the world was busy too.
I was starting to get a little bugged. Why would you just not text me back when I wanted to hang out with you. Are you friend-breaking up with me?
On Friday evening I called my dad.
"I guess you didn't think the joke I texted you was very funny. You didn't even respond."
A light bulb went off. I tried to send myself a text and it didn't go through. I hadn't been receiving any calls either. Everything outgoing was working, but nothing was coming in. I called my service provider and had my service reset and got about 30 text messages at once. People wanted to hang out with me too, it turns out. My roommate had asked if I wanted anything from the grocer store. So thoughtful.
This whole thing got me thinking...
I've had unlimited text messaging since I was 15 years old. Since then, I have been able to send any message to any person at any time as frequently as I wanted. Since then, there's probably been about a month of total time where my phone was not within five feet of me. I got my phone taken away in high school once for using it in class. I had finished a test early and there was nothing else to do.
Maybe it's not good. Maybe I've spent too much of life attached to a thing. but behind that thing there are people right? I mean I don't think I would ever communicate with my oldest brother if it weren't for text messages. Minus 6 months where our main communication was weekly emails, text messages is definitely about 70% of my interactions with him. So better texts than nothing.
But maybe I'm getting impatient. I mean, I texted my mom at 2 in the morning the other night to tell her I had changed the time for a doctors appointment. I need to be heard, and I need to be heard now. What I am saying is so important that I am going to tell you it in the middle of class, while eating lunch, in the middle of the night, while I'm talking to someone else in person.
But most of the time they are not important at all. Most of the time my texts are just "hahaha that's crazy" or "Okie dokie, I'll check and let you know" or something to that effect. Maybe I've been raised in a world where people communicate constantly instead of deeply.
I hereby resolve to do absolutely nothing. I mean, I thought about what I could change and I decided nothing. I like a text now and then. It helps me know others are thinking of me, if even for a little bit.
A picture for picture's sake:
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