Being All Thumbs

I’ve been reading Through the Children’s Gate by Adam Gopnik. In one of his essays he tells how he had been texting his son “LOL,” which he thought meant lots of love, when in fact it means laughing out loud.  Gopnik has not yet achieved fogidom, but being a parent, he’s on his way. 

He comments that, had instant messaging come first and the telephone after, technology writers would be extolling the wonder of being able to hear your loved one breathing and the ease of calling compared to typing on a small keyboard with your thumbs.  Of course there would be some who would lament the decline in keyboard skills and declare they would never telephone. 

I have to admit I don’t appreciate texting, but the kids seem to love it.  Perhaps it’s ideal for teenagers because they can be in contact without actually saying much.  I don’t mind email.  One of the best things about it is the fact that you have a record of what you said and can call it up if need be. 

Getting an email from a friend is a pleasant experience, although it hasn’t the same feeling as opening a letter.  With change we gain and we lose, and it’s important, especially for fogies, to keep an eye on the plus side.  Grumpiness is an evil to be striven against. 

Still I regard texting as a fad.  It’s too cryptic.  Look at Gopnik’s misunderstanding of LOL.  Brevity can be good, but unless you’re a poet, it can’t achieve depth.  I don’t think high-schoolers are sending haikus as they walk to their next class.  A haiku is long on thought. It may be read over and over with profit.  Every word counts.  Brief though it may be, a haiku is slow communication. 

Something will replace texting. If I knew what it was and had the tech skills to make it happen, I could become a very rich fogy indeed. Failing that, I can be glad of the era I lived in.  I’m comforted that I know my multiplication tables.  Fogies from a generation before mine were happy they knew the five Latin declensions.  They may not have needed them, but the knowledge helped make those people who they were.  Today’s children are learning something that will give them satisfaction when they grow old, and I have absolutely no inkling what it will be.