Football, Baseball, Basketball, and Oh Yeah, Texting
09 Oct 2008

by Eric Christiansen
This is a great time of the year to be a sports fan. The Major League Baseball playoffs are in full swing (unless you root for the Cubs), the NFL is once again proving to be the most popular sport in America, college campuses are buzzing on Saturday afternoons with tailgates and football, and the NBA and NHL have started their preseasons, which means we will soon give way to Mother Nature’s angry side.
Now that we have officially filled the criteria to make this a sports column, I am going to address something that is sweeping the nation, nay, the world: texting.
A short year ago, I mentioned in a column on these pages, that I had a two text rule. If it can’t be said in two texts, call me. I’m not wasting time, and my thumbs, spelling out words one punch at a time on my Nokia.
Well, I am officially eating my words. I have gone from a 100 text plan a month, to 250, to 500, to an unlimited plan. I blame a couple of my friends for forcing me to go unlimited, but they would never call, and just text away.
Last night, I even switched calling plans because I wasn’t even using half of my allotted minutes because I am texting so much. This was right after I nearly blew out my knee texting at night by the covered bridge. Walked right into a curb with my head looking down at my phone.
I don’t even know who I am anymore. At first, I was beating myself up for it, but then I realized, I am just changing with the times. Evolving.
I remember getting upset when people would mention any website address or utter the words “information superhighway”. I wasn’t on board with the internet at first, now I check my five email address, as well as Facebook and AIM three times a day or more.
But, we much change with the times, or we will be left behind.
I saw a commercial that asked if we should even call them phones anymore, with everything we can do with our mobile devices. Internet, music, TV, camera, videos, GPS systems, calculators, calendar, address book, alarm clock, stop watch, games, and who knows what else are packed into these small (and getting smaller) “phones”.
These are not Zach Morris phones, my friends.
Back to texting. Some of my friends gave me a hard time because I didn’t use T9. (If you don’t know what T9 is, I give you permission to stop reading now.) It made no sense to punch the number 7 four times to get an ‘S’. Once I learned T9, my world changed. I can actually text the word "tomorrow" with eight key punches instead of 18. True story.
Still, when I stop and think about how much texting goes on in this world, it is really unbelievable. Why have we stopped talking?
Penmanship keeps getting worse and worse because there is little need for it in this world.
Will that happen to our speaking ability as well? Will we all become robots who talk in abbreviations?
By a show of hands, who here has texted someone who is in the same room?
Sadly, I am guilty. I need help...or do I?
Am I worse off because I text, or am I better for it for changing with the times?
Idk, but omg im prolly gonna git dummer the more i txt. srsly.