Budaya S.M.S

Text me later.

Honestly, how many times do we hear that these days? So often, that i'm beginning to wonder how i passed the first 12 years of my early life without hand phone. Anyway, the thing which irritates me most about the hand phone is--believe it or not-- the short messaging system. And what in the world are things like;

major swt, lol, okay i'm sry.

initially i would've interpreted this as

"major sweet, lol, okay i'm surly."

Honestly! If i could say something to my friends out there who send messages often;

"When i talk to you, look me in the eye and stop looking at your phone."

"When i talk to you, stop fiddling with your phone."

"When i talk to you, stop pretending you're listening by nodding yet at the same time continue typing on your phone."

Heh, though i'm guilty of some of those as well at times. Just try...refrain from those won't ya. Show some due respect to whoever are around you.

And if i could say anything to strangers out there who send messages often;

"If you wanna cross the road, cross the road, FAST. That means no crossing the road while typing a message! What's bigger, you or my car-- technically my dad's car la."

"Don't just fumble with your phone and turn oblivious to the world. Hoi? The line in the q just moved forwards, you wanna order or not?"

I don't know, lately, i've something against this budaya sms. I feel like it's robbed us of our abilities to socialise-- normally that is. How often when we need to apologise to someone do we look for them? Nope, the easy way out. Start t y p i n g a
message.

"Hey, look, i'm sorry."

And how's the person receiving that going to know for sure if you really are sorry?

Or, when we need to clarify a misunderstanding, yeahh! just take out the phone and start typing...

"I must explain this to you. Today, i didn't mean to ram into you and then run off. It was just that i was so fascinated when i saw the chicken... that was my first time seeing one you know! My friend in Spore used to tell me that chickens had no feathers!"
yada yada. (the chicken without feathers part? yeah it's true, the kids in Spore never seen a live chicken before, so to them, chickens are featherless).

Or, when facing a dilemma,

"I need to talk to you. I'm facing this situation where..."

That's funny, you're not talking, you're typing there. Though again, i'm guilty of most of the above. I don't know, i can't help but imagine that one day, two persons could be standing next to each other and they'll have to communicate with each other through this puny gadget known as the phone.



Sigh. Somebody. Save our souls!