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Post by majorminor on May 26, 2011 10:17:47 GMT -5
So what specifically is the big difference between texting and e mailing then? Speed of transmision?
I handle lots of work related e mails with attachments from my BBerry. I prefer that over texting as I can choose to keep a server copy that goes to my office desktop
I hardly ever text
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Post by sidheguitarmichael on May 26, 2011 10:47:44 GMT -5
C aquas 1st post
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Post by Doug on May 26, 2011 10:51:18 GMT -5
My kids think e mail is for old people. Mine too
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Post by mccoyblues on May 26, 2011 10:57:36 GMT -5
So what specifically is the big difference between texting and e mailing then? Speed of transmision? I handle lots of work related e mails with attachments from my BBerry. I prefer that over texting as I can choose to keep a server copy that goes to my office desktop I hardly ever text Technically very little. The biggest difference is capacity and ease of use. Email programs can get bulky but in many cases you want all the features that something like MS Outlook can provide. Texting can never replace a robust email account. Email can replace texting very easy but it isn't as easy to use. Texting is smaller, more mobile, quicker and easier to use for short simple messages.
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Post by majorminor on May 26, 2011 11:00:07 GMT -5
Went and re-read it and gleaned the same things as the first time - it's just like e mail but somehow different. I'm guessing send and receive times must be faster and more "real time" and maybe texts don't affect data transmission limits on the plan?
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Post by aquaduct on May 26, 2011 11:12:26 GMT -5
Went and re-read it and gleaned the same things as the first time - it's just like e mail but somehow different. I'm guessing send and receive times must be faster and more "real time" and maybe texts don't affect data transmission limits on the plan? I don't have a smartphone or a data plan that goes with it. I can text my wife and kids all day from my normal phone but I have to go to the computer to get email. That's the basic difference. Texting is more like written walkie talkies. Not much detail but fast and to the point.
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Post by timfarney on May 26, 2011 11:13:05 GMT -5
I don't text. I don't even have a data plan. I've blocked in-coming text messages because they're all commercial and cost me money. I do text back and forth with my daughter on iChat or Facebook from time to time, but it's a pain in the ass. It's a lot faster, easier, more efficient and more personal to talk to someone. I get the privacy/multi-tasking advantages, and I don't think it is any less personal than an email, or even a call, I just think it's a dumb waste of time. In a fraction of the time I spend texting back and forth, I could put the phone to my ear and have the conversation. Last but not least, the multi-tasking thing often crosses the line into rude, and texting while driving should be an unquestioned reckless driving charge.
Get offa my lawn.
Tim
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Post by mccoyblues on May 26, 2011 11:54:58 GMT -5
You don't need a data plan to text. Data is for Internet access. If you want to text in a cost affective way you do need a messaging plan but you do not need a data plan.
That's why some phones can do texting but can't do Internet. Those are messaging phones. You need a smart phone if you want to get to the Internet.
I have had a smart phone ever since the iPhone was introduced. I don't think I have ever received an unsolicited text message that was what I would consider commercial SPAM.
Without a messaging plan you are charged every time you send or recive a message. probably inthe 10 cent to 20 cent per message range. If you buy a messaging plan you can text 1000 times a month for $10.
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Post by aquaduct on May 26, 2011 11:58:14 GMT -5
Without a messaging plan you are charged every time you send or recive a message. probably inthe 10 cent to 20 cent per message range. If you buy a messaging plan you can text 1000 times a month for $10. My plan's with ATT and allows unlimited family texts for $20/month.
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Post by Russell Letson on May 26, 2011 12:25:23 GMT -5
Texting is a function of one's social/family life. We have no kids and only use our TracFones for voice calls when we travel. We have no friends under 50 any more. The cat won't use a phone at all, and my 89-year-old mother is content with voice communication, especially since her laptop crapped out. As a result, I have never sent a text message, and the incoming ones are all from TracFone (mostly added-minutes confirmations), with an occasional mysterious spam text, none of which costs us anything.
My thumbs are reserved for the guitar and the TV and DVR remotes.
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Post by dickt on May 26, 2011 12:52:22 GMT -5
Texting besides being an obnoxious form of communication is the biggest ripoff on the planet. For an infinitesimal amount of the bandwidth of a voice call the cell companies get a huge amount of money whether it's at the $10 or $20 a month rate or at the .10 or .20 a message rate.
We have four cell phones--one for my wife and I, and one for each kid. We don't text at all but occasionally get a picture msg of the grandkid. The oldest doesn't really text much so we just pay the .20 per msg for the ten msgs a month he might have. The younger two had the 500 text a month for $10 each line and I recently cut it back to 250 since usage hadn't been that high. So immediately the one who says he hates texting started doing 300-500 texts. Cost an extra $30 in April. So I put them back at 500 msgs. Verizon called to sell me the unlimited family thing for $30 but since two of the phones are not doing any texts, I declined. For data it's $15 for 150 MB or enough bandwidth for about half a million text msgs.
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Post by RickW on May 26, 2011 13:02:05 GMT -5
I text my girls every day to see whether it's early or late pickup from school. They text me when they are on a field trip about pickup times. We'll text each other with a question that we don't want to spend a long conversation on. I text when I'm someplace busy or crowded.
It's a convenient fire and forget kind of messaging. It's a lot like email. Kids do too much, it's replaced conversation.
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Post by Marshall on May 26, 2011 13:07:24 GMT -5
Went and re-read it and gleaned the same things as the first time - it's just like e mail but somehow different. I'm guessing send and receive times must be faster and more "real time" and maybe texts don't affect data transmission limits on the plan? I don't have a smartphone or a data plan that goes with it. I can text my wife and kids all day from my normal phone but I have to go to the computer to get email. That's the basic difference. Texting is more like written walkie talkies. Not much detail but fast and to the point. Exactly. Texting comes with every cell phone. It's just using the phone line. Email and web surfing and such need a 3G (or4G) data plan AND you've got to be in range of a 3G tower. many places i go i can get cell coverage, but not 3G. That's what all those Verizon vs AT&T commercials with the maps are all about. AT&T doesn't have 3G coverage outside of metropolitan areas. You can text anyplace you can get a signal.
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Post by omaha on May 26, 2011 13:19:08 GMT -5
I wonder if there isn't a trend emerging here.
When you scrape things down to their core, its all the same. Texting, email, message boards, USENET, Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn. Down under the covers, its all the same core technology.
So, maybe the trend here is that every generation (measured in "dog years" because its all Internet speed) has to have its "own" version of stuff.
So the kids think email is old-fashioned, but they think Facebook messaging is the coolest thing...even though the only difference between the two is a paper-thin veneer of a user-interface.
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Post by omaha on May 26, 2011 13:25:15 GMT -5
Sort of like how every generation thinks they invented sex.
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Post by aquaduct on May 26, 2011 13:30:42 GMT -5
Sort of like how every generation thinks they invented sex. Well I know I didn't invent it. Trying like hell to perfect it though.
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Post by majorminor on May 26, 2011 13:40:00 GMT -5
Sort of like how every generation thinks they invented sex. I never thought I invented it. Just improved upon it greatly.
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Post by Lonnie on May 26, 2011 13:56:21 GMT -5
The biggest problem with our new constantly connected society lies more in people's expectations and assumptions than it does with the variety of media. Some people who embrace texting (and email) as their main mode of communication expect everyone else to view it the same way. I got an email this morning (this scenario also occurs with text messaging) while I was away from the computer. There was another, time stamped 20 minutes later from the same person. The first email was a question about some plans for Saturday... the second was a very terse "It's too nice a day for me to sit here waiting for your answer. I am going outside, I will check back here every 15 minutes until you respond."
She knows both my telephone numbers. If she needs an immediate response, why not a phone call? Because she, like many, can't grasp the difference anymore between an actual conversation and a virtual one-way-at-a-time dialogue, AND she makes the assumption that if she's on the web, I'm on the web.
We're becoming a ridiculously impatient society...
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Post by Russell Letson on May 26, 2011 14:10:50 GMT -5
Jeff: Actually, it's almost all the same thing. If I understand it correctly, SMS texting relies on a different infrastructure from land-line telephony and the internet that's piggybacked onto that. And that veneer over the internet-based apps might be thin, compared to the weighty infrastructure of phone lines, satellites, DNS servers, and such, but there's a world of difference in the range of connections that get made up at the application level.
The line from USENET and bulletin boards to the Soundhole is pretty straight, but the social arrangements enabled by Facebook are a non-trivial step beyond, and Twitter's speed and extent seem to me to add up to one of those situations where a difference in quantity becomes a difference in quality.
Similarly, if there were sufficient cheap bandwidth and easy-to-use applications to exploit it, the Soundhole could morph into a real-time video conferencing environment, which would probably change the nature of the interactions. No more sitting around typing in a bathrobe of a morning, for starters, and I'd shave before signing on.
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Post by John B on May 26, 2011 14:25:05 GMT -5
I text constantly. I have a where 99% of our communication is via text. They're based in FL, I'm in AZ, it works.
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