Texting, the new way to hold a conversation, in pixely black and white




It is a quiet night at this bar in Tsim Sha Tsui and the waitress finds it appropriate to carry on a conversation with her friend or boyfriend perhaps, via short messages on her mobile phone. She never seems to tire of punching the little keys on the phone.

"Texting" or sending short messages via your mobile phone, has taken Asia by storm. It is no longer just a fad or the latest craze. There is a new generation of young people that have grown up around computers and mobile phones and to them, texting is as natural as picking up the old fashioned telephone and speaking into it.

I am very slow with composiing short messages, my fingers are just not trained to type that fast on the phone's small keypad, so I wonder why would so many people rather "text" than just dial the number and call the person, then simply tell them what it they wanted to say?

Well it started out (I am guessing here) with air time being expensive and text messages were either free or cost next to nothing. So in some countries it has become a way of communicating cheaply. When you think of it, it is not that much different from 70-80 years ago when not everyone could afford a telephone in their home so people made use of "wire" services provided by telegraph companies. It was not unusual in New York City during those days to "wire" somebody in the morning invitiing them for afternoon tea.

But in Hong Kong, air time is already extremely cheap, as matter of fact most operators offer hundreds of minutes of air time free of charge in their monthly schemes. And there are ways to get even more free air time. So why do so many people (notably younger ones) often prefer to carry out an entire conversation typing? Is it out of politeness?

For instance in Tokyo, people riding the trains, respect their fellow passenger's well being and comfort, so "texting" has become a mandatory way to communicate during those long commutes, without disturbing anybody. As a matter of fact, there are signs on the trains asking passengers to be considerate and turn off their mobile phones.

But still this reasoning would not deter Hong Kong people from placing calls in the noisy and crowded trains and having to resort to shouting in order to be heard above the background noise, nobody even thinks or cares that they could be disturbing fellow passengers, eventhough they yelling into the phone a mere few centimetres from the next passenger's ear.

So it still mystified me why "texting" has become so common place in Hong Kong. That is when I started to ask people why would they rather "text" and not just call the other person. And invariably, people said that often the person is supposed to be doing something else (like working?) but is secretly carrying on a conversation with. But most interestingly, people told me that when "texting" their friend or partner was likely to put words in black & white which they may find difficult to say were this a spoken conversation. It appears to have become a way of expressing feelings and thoughts in writing that might otherwise be difficult to say. Perhaps saying something sensitive via short message is seen as more subtle than speaking it.

This type of mentality is also evident in the on-line computer chatting or instant messaging. Again it is understandable why people would rather chat on-line with someone across the othe side of the world and avoid expensive intercontinental long distance charges, but so many people prefer this mode of communication even locally.

But going back to the waitress in the bar above, it would be seen as irresponsible of her to be engaged on the phone, chatting away when she is supposed to be working, yet quietly punching away is ok as it is ok to stop the communication if she is required to do something else and resume it again a minute later, with texting silent gaps become strechable and acceptable. So once you begin a dialogue, you are always "on" until you say goodbye, this could be several minutes or a couple of hours later.

It leads me to believe that this is a sign of the times, perhaps the personal shared space, the sound immediacy and intimacy of one's voice have become secondary to what one puts down in black and white on those little screens. Call me old fashioned but I liked it better when people spoke to each other and did so whenever it was appropriate. And don't get me started on email versus writing letters in long hand.....




© evangelo costadimas 2005

Posted: Monday - May 23, 2005 at 12:34 AM          

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