Britain: A nation of txt addicts who prefer Twitter to phoning mum Brits are chatting online and spewing messages from phones more than ever as gossiping in voice calls declines for the first time. Calling from mobiles is only down a smidgen on last year, slipping about 1 per cent, according to an annual report from communications watchdog Ofcom. But the volume of fixed-line calls dropped by …
The *main* plus about a text, is that it does not waste the recipients time.. you dont HAVE to answer it immediately, unlike most voice calls.. - you will get a silent notification, and then you can answer back when the boss isn't looking, or when you have finished what you were doing.. :)
same with email. Also very convenient, because you have a definite trail. All you have with a phone call (unless you are in a regulated industry) is a he-said/she-said account.
I had a colleague, a while back who insisted on phoning before anything. He was then surprised when people were either out, couldn't deal with him immediately (thus leading to a "when can you get back" situation), or in a few cases simply denied point-blank ever being spoken too.
Years of less than scrupulous colleagues has taught me to put *everything* into an email, and make judicious use of the "cc" field.
...indeed. And I love the widely reported interpretation that we are now 'texting more than we are phoning'. Maybe there are more texts than phone calls, but many text exchanges are multiple texts, and most phone conversations carry more information than texts.
I'm also not sure why the drop in voice should worry the mobile telcos that much - don't they have a much higher profit margin on text?
They should worry as more and more users turn their back on traditional SMS and "text" via internet based platforms.
Not that I feel sorry for the mobile networks, those poor 'we made £15Bn profit last year and still managed to offer the WORST customer experience EVER to it's user base' mobile networks.
Poor them.
Wht R U tlkng About? Txt msgs R gr8! Evrybdy luvs them, n phone calls R old skool!
I bloody hate text messages. But partly it's my own fault, due to my obsessive need to capitalise and punctuate them properly. Slightly less painful on smartphones than on keypads, I suppose, but I'm not a fan. I'd much rather just pick up the phone, get the conversation done and get off. But I've got quite a few friends who prefer to text, to save time, except you end up taking twice as long to get anything done, sending and receiving multiple texts.
almost all long distance human communcation was written. Give it another hundred years and telephone will seem like the blip. The 'ANSWER ME NOW!' insistence of the ring, the expectation of the person on the other end that you are ready and able to reply.
Given the choice of phoning my wife in her office or just dropping her a text she can reply to quietly at leisure? No competition.
Amount of connected devices in my house that all are hooked up to the internet and used for social networking or other interactive online activities or media serving:
2 x PC
2 x Laptop
1 x Tablet
2 x Mobile phones
1 x Kindle
1 x Xbox (running XBMC)
1 x Raspberry Pi
1 x Wi-Fi router (running embedded Linux with media streaming)
Amount of people using these devices in my house ? Just me :-)
I was quite impressed actually. But when does he have time for a w*nk? ;)
Och I'm coorse the'day.
Reminds me of a rather wonderful article in a certain newspaper in a certain northeastern oil capital.
An older gentleman had been pulled up to the beak, for having a jimmy riddle through a neighbour's letterbox.
In court, he was asked why. Well. I guess they were curious. Answer - "Weel, I wis just bein' a bit coorse"
Top marks for honesty... still doesn't really explain but anyway.... darn I wish I had kept a copy of that edition.
Plus the one that had "Human Fireball Horror- colour pictures!" on the front page. That was class too.
Sorry Txts don't cut it for me - mut be the only person n the UK sending less than 1 per week on average (some else is using al the other 49..). It's not "instant messaging" so no idea when it was sent (unless sender adds that); sent at the mercy of telco network state. All "conversation" lost if you lose/wipe the phone. Email on the other hand has a trail that can be followed - you can always leave it on the server (so available from multiple devices) and it's no more bother on a smartphone. I've lost count of the times people have 'I sent you a txt' only for it to be dlivered days/weeks later.
Just use email - you know it makes sense (and Twatter can get lost too)
Depending on your phone/network, you should be able to find out when a text was sent, and I have a program that takes the texts on my android phone and backs them up to my gmail.
I generally use email as well, but I still have a large proportion of friends who either don't have/want email on their phone, or live in an area with such crap signal that texts are the only reliable method of communication (ie poor/non-existent data or voice coverage).
At the end of the day there's some people I usually talk face to face with, some I phone, some I text and some I email.
Can't be arsed with twatter, better things to do, as for PhysogBook, I don't bother with it either, people ask my kids, why isn't your dad on Facebook? they opine sadly that he is a boring Linux fanatic who doesn't believe a thing Microsoft or Apple says. it is becoming a regular offender in relationship breakup on Jeremy Kyle, my other half tells me
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
