Texting: Is It The Next Best Thing?

(LB) There was a time when texting just didn't happen. I know, can you believe it? And when the first phones came out that offered the texting feature, it was a pain in the fingers. You had to hit the button twice for "B" or thrice for "C" and it generally took a lot of dedication to make it into a message. Then smartphones came along with their pop-up on-screen keyboard, and we were off to the races.

Now anyone with a smartphone can quickly and easily send a text message. It can be costly depending on your contract and that doesn't seem to stop  the endless stream of messages. According to Ask.com in 2010, in 2010 188 billion text messages were sent in the USA. According to Techvibes.com Canadians in 2012, sent about 8 billion texts a month, which given the relative population sizes of our two countries says we are equally text happy.

Texting is a fun and easy way to communicate and it is also rife with problems.

There is a sub group of texting: sexting, which presents all kinds of potential for problems. This form of texting involves the sending and receiving of graphic sexual content. It may be as simple as a shot of women's cleavage to a man showing his unmentionables. Depending on the age groups involved it could be interpreted by the courts as the transmission of child pornography which carries a pretty stiff penalty.

While in theory what consenting adults do with one another is generally seen as ok; there is a hidden pitfall. What happens when you break up? Will he or she show your personal texts and pictures to the world? Do you really want to run that risk? What if that ex-partner is really angry and sends the pictures on to your boss or posts them on one of the social media sites?  I guess the easy rule of thumb is: do you want your grandmother to see it? If no, then don't do it.

If you are a parent concerned about all of this stuff: social media, texting and such, check out your local school board. Here in BC many of them are offering free information sessions for parents and kids on how to stay safe on the internet and in texting. For me, texting works to confirm times and places for meetings or just as a small chit-chat - not as my primary means of communication.

(JL) I don't really have a lot to offer on this issue. I am someone who enjoys texting for quick catch-ups. The issues that I see facing us today is the lack of 'quality time' that people have now because they are busy texting and ignoring the person they are with. Or are texting the person the ARE with and not talking.

When texting came along I was thrilled to have yet another tool to communicate quickly and have a record for my poor memory. I have come to realize, though, that like all other social media, it lacks that human touch and often causes more trouble than it's worth. I still use it. But a lot less than I have in the past.

Lynne Brown is the owner and coach of www.OrcaCoachingConsulting.com. Lynne Brown has been a coach and mentor for the last 30 years. She has a passion for working with people by empowering them to achieve their dreams and set realistic and attainable goals. Lynne has high energy as well as a positive and empathetic approach. Lynne is a firm believer that one of the purposes in life is to have fun and she incorporates that into her coaching and consulting.

James Latour is the owner and coach of www.JLPSolutions.ca and writer on www.LifesRollerCoaster.com. James has over 25 years of experience working with the profit and not-for-profit sectors in with project management, human resources, fundraising and volunteerism and industry – related consulting. He is known for his team approach and follow through. If you are looking for an enthusiastic coach/consultant who walks the walk and talks the talk, you’ve found him. Recently James has turned his passion, writing, into a blog and is using his talent in more direct ways.

Are You Twitter-pated?

Introduction

This week we are looking at Twitter. There certainly are lots of reasons to use Twitter and just as many not to. There are also issues with how Twitter gets used these days. But first here is some information from Wikipedia.

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read "tweets", which are text messages limited to 140 characters. Registered users can read and post tweets but unregistered users can only read them.

Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and by July 2006, the site was launched. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with 500 million registered users in 2012, who posted 340 million tweets per day. The service also handled 1.6 billion search queries per day. Twitter is now one of the ten most visited websites, and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet."

Twitter spun off into its own company in April 2007. Williams provided insight into the ambiguity that defined this early period in a 2013 interview:

With Twitter, it wasn't clear what it was. They called it a social network, they called it microblogging, but it was hard to define, because it didn't replace anything. There was this path of discovery with something like that, where over time you figure out what it is. Twitter actually changed from what we thought it was in the beginning, which we described as status updates and a social utility. It is that, in part, but the insight we eventually came to was Twitter was really more of an information network than it is a social network.

(JL) Security: Like all other places-internet, it is possible to get hacked. In fact my old Twitter account has been hacked, even though I have shut it down. There seem to be other issues as well, such as public visibility and possible charges.

Tweets are publicly visible by default, but senders can restrict message delivery to just their followers. Users can tweet via the Twitter website, compatible external applications (such as smartphones), or by Short Message Service (SMS) available in certain countries. While the service is free, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees. [Link]

(JL) Censoring & HashTags: Like other social media it is possible to have some censored or be censored yourself. A new word in the English vocabulary is hashtags, which used to be two separate words. These are words that are attached to a tweet to cause or show interest on a topic. If you click on the hashtag (preceded by #) you will be able to follow the TOPIC, as opposed to the Tweeter. But be careful about hashtags. If users deem them offensive they will be removed/blocked by Twitter. So for example I may send the following tweet:

Tonight watch out for the holiday drinkers #drunkdrivers, #mad.

(JL) Limitations: Although Twitter is limited to only 140 characters (letters, spaces and punctuation) it is now possible to send larger messages on Twitter by using tools such as Tall Tweets which is one I like personally.

(JL) New Language to Learn: Probably one of the biggest pet peeves I have about most social media is the need to learn new vocabulary like RT, #, @, DM, This, TBH, OMG, LOL, MT, OH, +1, HT and so much more. See this link for more information on this.

(LB) This drives me nuts, especially when people tell you different definitions for the shorthand.

(JL) Life & Time Waster: Like all social media I am constantly amazed by the number of people who walk around with their noses to their smartphones on various social media tools. There has been a dramatic rise in emergency room visits caused by people with their noses to their phones and not watching where they are stepping, everything from broken bones to car accidents to falling down man holes (Yes that has actually happened) [link]. This doesn't even take into account the fact that people are so attached to their devices that they miss so much beauty that is around them. Talk about not being present!

I also wonder about people who have the time to be tweeting constantly. I tend to do it in bursts or I have used a service like Gremln, HootSuite or Twuffer to schedule tweets. One of the biggest challenges to date that I've found with these tools is that you can use them only lightly and then they want you to pay fees to use the service.

(JL) Social Skills Killer: Once again, Twitter is no different from other social media in that it is causing young people to grow up lacking social skills, thus creating problems in interviews, or if they get passed the interview, in their workplace. You seldom find a young person without their smartphone attached to them, even in the workplace.

(LB) Hint, turn off your phone if you are in an interview or even if you are at work. Your boss is not paying you to stay in constant communication with your friends. You are really there to work.

(JL) Connection: Although Twitter is used to keep people, businesses, organizations, events, connected with news, it lacks the real connection. Is it really possible to express emotion and intent? I don't believe so. That is one of the reasons why so many people have so much drama in their lives. They either mis-read or over-read words. They either place too little or too much meaning on the words in the tweet.

(LB) Couldn't agree more with this comment. I sent what I thought was a funny comment out and got back a cranky response from my nephew who had read what I said totally out of the context I had intended. This created some unneeded tension between us until we sorted it out. It really is those sorts of things that cause drama, and really life is too short for that kind of mindless drama.

(JL) Good wholesome fun: It is fun to tweet. You may be standing in a market and see a funny t-shirt, snap a shot and tweet it. You may be reading something and find an excellent quote you wish to share (limited to 140 characters though). For me it actually adds fun to my business and writing as well as communicating issues, events or ideas.

(LB) James has had a lot to say about Twitter and most of it is pretty positive, so let me be the devil's advocate. 

• First, what information can you possibly share in 140 that means any thing? Come on, who cares if you are eating dinner or watching TV or what ever vastly important thing you feel the need to share with the world.
• Secondly, Twitter is also promoted as a place you MUST be if you have a business. Been on Twitter for a couple of years and never had anyone contact me about work.
• Thirdly, Twitter is another place where bullying takes place. In fact, not that long ago Lady Gaga asked her fans to be polite and stop abusive tweets. Twitter is also that anonymous space where people feel free to say and show things that really most of use don't want to know.

So, I guess in summary you could say Twitter is a fun place to check in on, a poor place to live your life on.

Lynne Brown is the owner and coach of Orca Coaching & Consulting. Lynne Brown has been a coach and mentor for the last 30 years. She has a passion for working with people by empowering them to achieve their dreams and set realistic and attainable goals. Lynne has high energy as well as a positive and empathetic approach. Lynne is a firm believer that one of the purposes in life is to have fun and she incorporates that into her coaching and consulting.

James Latour is the owner and coach of JLP Solutions and writer on Life's Roller Coaster. James has over 25 years of experience working with the profit and not-for-profit sectors in with project management, human resources, fundraising and volunteerism and industry – related consulting. He is known for his team approach and follow through. If you are looking for an enthusiastic coach/consultant who walks the walk and talks the talk, you’ve found him. Recently James has turned his passion, writing, into a blog and is using his talent in more direct ways.