Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Text msg me no more, please!


There’s this thing with text messages, when u should use them or not. I’ve personally always been a fan, but since I arrived to China I have actually changed my opinion about them, because over here, people text each other about EVERYTHING…

It is like the thought of picking up the phone and making a phone call doesn’t even occur to people. Either they text, or they email, or… they text you again?! Phone call? Very rare. Sometimes u get one though, and a stressed voice on the other line is asking u:

-Didn’t u receive my text message?! U haven’t replied!

The reason why I find this annoying is because it is not the usual:
“Let’s meet for lunch at Whisk at 12.30pm” or
“I’m sorry, running 20 min late”.

But rather, it is important stuff, from kind of important people?!

Before I worked at an English city magazine in Shanghai. Often I would set up interviews, go out and meet companies or check out new places, and very often would I be contacted by people, via a text message:

“Dear Jonna I am xxxx from xxxx I would love it if you could come and visit us….”

I sure could, but don’t u think that conversation is more suitable for a phone conversation?

Or like the other day at the gym:

I had an appointment with a trainer named Sean, but had to cancel it. Seeing that Sean was busy with another client I told another girl to pass on the message to him. I also asked her to ask him to call me so we could set up a time for a new appointment. No Sean called, however, but the next day when I came to the gym he came running after me.

Sean: -Jonna, Jonna! Didn’t you get my message about the appointment?
Me: -What message?
Sean: -I sent you a text message asking when u want to reschedule for.
Me: -I didn’t get it.
Sean: -Oh… how strange *takes out the phone and starts looking for the message he sent. When he finds it he hands me the phone and lets me read it*

“Hi jonna, this is Sean from the gym. What time would you like me to schedule you in for a meeting?"

Me: -Well I never received it. You must have the wrong number.
Sean: -Ayiiiyaaa… yeah maybe. Oh, bummer...

Phone call, anyone? Since when did it became so hard for people to interact?!

2 comments:

Lullun said...

*hihi* Ja, i vissa hänseenden så hade nog ett telefonsamtal ändå vairt det mest effektiva vill jag lova! Tendensen att messa istället för att ringa verkar dock vara växande också utanför Kina, precis på samma sätt. Jag känner många som aldrig lyfter på luren numera (är lite sådan själv också, men det är för att jag alltid hatat telefoner, och helst pratar med människor ansikte mot ansikte. det är dock något jag jobbar på...). ;-)

thetrystero said...

texting in place of a phone call is pretty standard in most of Asia. I know that in Japan at least, the reason for this is the exhorbitant call charges. This may not be the case in China, so I can't speak to that.
Apart from this, there's also the "kawaii" factor of texting (emoticons etc.) that has its obvious draws.