Tools for Thought

I’m surprised by how many people still don’t “get” text messaging, at least among adults in the US.

This week the New York Times ran an article noting the low percentage of US cell phone owners that use text messaging. Despite most of the article being about email usage on cell phones in South Korea and Japan, the headline was “Drilling Down: Phones’ Texting Feature Often Unused.” Web Worker Daily’s Mike Gunderloy cited the Times article in his own, with the provocative title, “Text Messaging: Who Cares?” Both articles were based on an Ipsos survey, according to which 82% of Americans with cell phones never use text messaging, 3% use it monthly, and 15% use it at least weekly.

My question is: Why do people still prefer voice calls to text messaging?

Granted, many people are still using phones with E.161 (12-key) keypads rather than qwerty layouts. A large number of those users still assume they have to use multiple presses for each digit to cycle through letter groupings instead of using predictive text systems like T9 or iTap, where word dictionaries allow users to use one key per letter. Without an easy way to input text, it’s no surprise that people would rather “just” call someone.

Perhaps more importantly, texting fragments communication. 20 minutes of exchanges by text could probably be batched into a five-minute voice call. “Vocal” opponents of text messaging will argue that it’s more efficient to handle the entire transaction by phone.

If I want to have a conversion that’s either social or open-ended in nature, I call. Phone calls are still the best way to build rapport or work out complex issues. Otherwise, I use a text.

Why use text messaging?

It’s asynchronous. When you send a text message, recipients can reply at their discretion. Questions asked verbally compel people to give an immediate response, which is often not the most appropriate, accurate or thoughtful response. Even 20 seconds spent thinking about a question, a pause that would be intolerable over the phone, can allow someone to give a much better response.

It’s discreet. When people hold conversations over a cell phone in public, they tend to lose awareness (or consideration) of the people around them. They tend to talk much louder than they would if the person on the other end were right in front of them, since there are no non-verbal cues to verify that they’re being heard (close distance, eye contact, nodding). Texting cuts down on noise pollution.

It encourages concision. With texting’s 160 character limit, there’s no room for discursive smalltalk. You have to get straight to the point. It’s not uncommon for a six-minute phone call to have one real question (“Do you want to come over for dinner tonight?”) and five minutes of icebreaking (“How are you doing?”). Texting allows you to bypass this verbal static. If you need to call someone, you can sometimes text the topic as a question and get them to answer it by phone, jumping right into the topic instead of defaulting to ritual greetings.

Received messages are faster to digest. A text message can be read and apprehended in a glance. Even if the message was a waste of time, the lost time is measured in seconds, not minutes.

It’s persistent. Many callers aren’t equipped to write down a piece of information you need to give them. You can send them addresses, phone numbers or what-have-you by text, and know that they received it as accurately as you sent it. With many phones, you can actually do this during the phone call, if you’re using a headset.

It allows access to other information resources. You can receive schedule reminders from online calendars (or send schedule updates to them), look up product prices, get news, and a host of other information using services like Google SMS. See Six Critical Information Resources for Your Cell Phone.