Commentary: On Point: Texting, emails shouldn't replace personal touch

By Mark Singletary The Daily Record Newswire I remember getting my first email. It was early in the fall of 1996 and it came from an attorney. I had no clue what to do with it or how to respond. I think I called my 11-year-old daughter for advice. She didn't know what to do either, so I ended up calling the lawyer on the phone and asked him what he needed. I was too embarrassed to ask for help that day but soon learned how great email could be. Now I have email accounts for work and for personal use. I can also text message pretty darn fast for someone my age. While it's hard, some might say impossible, to imagine living without email, texts or instant messaging, the truth is we got along without it for several thousand years. All those eons of wasted time and energy were spent talking, writing and visiting friends and business associates. But if you think about it, the concept of fast, impersonal messaging isn't all that new. Maybe innovative, but definitely not new. Our ancestors were just as interested in eliminating face-to-face conversations as we are today. Smoke signals, carrier pigeons, telegraphs, telephones, pagers, cellphones and now smartphones have given us an ever faster ability to misjudge what others are trying to tell us. I can't imagine what the next generation of personal communications' devices will look like or how they will operate, but I'm anxious to find out. Ever since that first email came to my desktop, I've been curious about impersonal communications, not always compliant but definitely curious. Emails do not replace face-to-face communications, or at least they shouldn't. It's pretty silly to get an email from the person sitting in the desk next to you when it would be so easy for them to spin around, observe whether you're busy and then ask you whatever is on their mind. Although my enthusiasm for the exercise has slipped significantly, I usually try to reply to coworker emails with a visit to their desk. It's always fun to watch how people react when they send an email and I get up and walk over and ask what's on their mind. Many times my personal appearance makes them feel uncomfortable. Why is it that my physical presence is an intrusion, but a call, email or text is not? And why do people get upset when I don't answer their email and text messages immediately? Texter: I need to let you know about this special event we are having and want you to give us some extra special coverage. I don't respond. Texter: Are you there? Are you busy? Why didn't you respond? I still don't respond. Texter: I'll call you in a few minutes and also email you the information. Again, no response. Eventually I get around to returning texts, emails and phone calls. I'm quite often interested. So what if it takes me a few minutes or even a couple of hours to respond? Texters wonder why in the heck I want to talk when we could do everything we need to do on our little QWERTY keypads. For the uninformed, QWERTY refers to the typewriter layout that personal computing devices now offer. When I learned typing, my home row keys were called ASDF/JKL;, or simply the home row keys. I have to admit QWERTY does sound much more hip. Published: Fri, May 27, 2011