What's with all the micro-texts?

15 June 2021, 10:18 PM

I have noticed a disturbing way that many people text. They send texts one sentence at a time. So you open your phone and see that you have six texts, and you open to find they are all from the same person at the same time. What could easily have been one text is six texts.

Why do I care?

Because sending six texts makes my phone buzz six times. And seeing that I have 14 texts is downright alarming because I immediately think I owe responses to 14 people, when in reality it is just two or three Micro-Texters.

Have I missed something? Is everyone doing this but me?

15 June 2021, 10:27 PM

wtg

Nobody I know texts that way.

--------------------------------
We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

Bazootiehead-in-training

15 June 2021, 10:42 PM

Nina

If you text as if you're typing, you end up microtexting... every time you hit return you send a new message.

For a lot of the message apps, the option, which used to just put in a return and not send, seems to have been disabled.

15 June 2021, 11:04 PM

Piano*Dad

I'm seeing it. Very annoying.

Of course, I'm one of those weirdos who can send a four paragraph text with proper sentence structure and punctuation.

16 June 2021, 02:05 AM

Axtremus

Get thee an iPhone.

It’s smart enough to only buzz only once when it get multiple messages from the same source in close succession, and the user interface does distinguish “return/new line” from “send.”

16 June 2021, 08:17 AM

QuirtEvans

quote:
Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
I'm seeing it. Very annoying.

Of course, I'm one of those weirdos who can send a four paragraph text with proper sentence structure and punctuation.

I’m a member of that club.

But I get micro texts all the time.

What bothers me more is a very long text with just one paragraph. Readability, people.

16 June 2021, 08:44 AM

Mary Anna

It's generational. My younger friends do it, and I'm talking ten years or so younger, not children. I think we're going to have to get used to it.

As I think about it, though, my children don't do it. So maybe it's only 40- to 50-year-olds and not the wave of the future.

16 June 2021, 08:53 AM

Piano*Dad

quote:
Get thee an iPhone.

I'll have to listen for that. I have an iPhone.

16 June 2021, 03:23 PM

dolmansaxlil

quote:
Originally posted by Mary Anna:
It's generational. My younger friends do it, and I'm talking ten years or so younger, not children. I think we're going to have to get used to it.

As I think about it, though, my children don't do it. So maybe it's only 40- to 50-year-olds and not the wave of the future.

I do it depending on what I’m talking about and the person I’m talking to. 45 here so maybe you’re right, Mary Anna. I also use punctuation and actual sentences.

16 June 2021, 03:30 PM

Steve Miller

16 June 2021, 03:47 PM

wtg

quote:
ROFLACGU

16 June 2021, 03:47 PM

Mary Anna

quote:
Originally posted by dolmansaxlil:
quote:
Originally posted by Mary Anna:
It's generational. My younger friends do it, and I'm talking ten years or so younger, not children. I think we're going to have to get used to it.

As I think about it, though, my children don't do it. So maybe it's only 40- to 50-year-olds and not the wave of the future.

I do it depending on what I’m talking about and the person I’m talking to. 45 here so maybe you’re right, Mary Anna. I also use punctuation and actual sentences.

I'm sure many books are being written about the rhetoric of texting and social media. I generally punctuate my texts for clarity, but will often leave off the final punctuation to show that I am not ignorant of the coolness factor

(See! I just did it in the previous paragraph!)

However, if I were microtexting, I could avoid those periods by hitting send after every sentence. I'm thinking that microtexters might be a transitional group between people of my vintage and younger people who are digital natives and thus know how to "unpunctuate" messages with multiple thoughts in them. Or maybe not...how would I know...

16 June 2021, 05:36 PM

CHAS

I am sorry.
I will never do it again. (have not been texting with any WTFers recently.

I started doing that recently. Did not realize how annoying it can be. Thought it would make it easier to read and I wanted what I had entered gone.

Will go back to my more established vices.