It’s taken me a couple days to collect my thoughts and write about an incident that occurred back on Christmas Day. It’s something that in today’s digital age seems to becoming more and more common. And it deals with a downfall that comes from an invention we all refer to today as texting.
Originally known as the Short Messaging Service (SMS), texting has evolved greatly since its inception back on December 3rd, 1992. It was on that day the first text was sent to a mobile phone and it contained only two words, “Merry Christmas”. And ironically, that’s exactly the two words that were missing from so many of my friends this year on Christmas Day, solely because I didn’t have SMS active on my mobile phone.
It’s been over two years now that I haven’t had the texting feature active on my cell phone. Initially I made the decision to remove it because I was using it to enhance my former addictive lifestyle. To put it bluntly, I was using it for what people refer to today as “sexting”, which was sending sex-based text messages out to others. It was rapidly becoming a growing problem for me so I removed the feature to prevent it from happening. Unfortunately, in doing so, it also cut me off from the expanding number of people who are choosing each year to use texting as their only mode of communication. And that became quite evident to me this year on Christmas Day when I didn’t even hear from one of my closest friends.
Unbeknownst to me, he made the decision this year to send out “personal” text messages to those he cared about sometime during Christmas Day. I placed the word “personal” in quotes simply because too many in this digital day and age feel that sending a text message is a personal thing. Twenty-one years ago, the personal thing to do on days such as Christmas Day was to pick up a phone and call those you loved and cared about to wish them a Merry Christmas. In fact, it really was the only way, other than receiving a holiday card in the mail, to do so. But with the invention of text messaging, every year the amount of people who are using the phone on the holidays is decreasing, as they become more in favor of sending a quick text message instead. This is precisely what my friend chose to do this year so that he could focus on spending time with his immediate family.
While I’m all in favor of doing actions such as that, his decision also saddened me because it was the first Christmas Day since I met him in 1997 that I didn’t hear from him. Some might say that it was my fault because I don’t have text messaging on my phone. But truthfully, receiving five or so words on a digital phone screen that wishes me a Merry Christmas doesn’t quite have that warm holiday cheer. I have always truly treasured those brief phone calls on Christmas Day from the ones I love. And isn’t that a lot more personal in nature than receiving a brief text message that says “Merry Christmas, have a great day!”?
People are saying too much these days that they’re too busy, especially on the holidays, to be bothered to make phone calls and have a few moments of conversation with anyone. Yet what people don’t see is the ever-increasing amount of people in this world who are feeling more and more alone inside. Depression continues to rise and the use of anti-depressants is also on the increase. Has anyone put thought to the idea that maybe this is partially due to how we’re communicating with each other these days? Maybe it’s because we are pulling away from the behaviors that once linked us all so closely together, such as picking up the phone and wishing someone a Merry Christmas instead of texting it?
I’m really undecided at the moment on what to do about this in my own life. Do I add texting back to my phone so that people like my closest friend could have reached out to me even on a minimal level on Christmas Day? Or do I remain old fashioned and at least do my part in calling all of those I love and wishing them a Merry Christmas, even if it always seems to be on their voice mails.
I don’t have that answer right now but I certainly pray that others might start realizing like I have, that there are some downsides to texting and the way we are communicating with each other these days. Until that happens, regardless of whether I’ll ever add texting back or not, I choose to continue making phone calls on special days like Christmas. As it’s in each of those calls that I can do my part in letting those I know and love, how I feel about them and how much I pray that God will bless their holiday.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson