One of the reasons I enjoy 100 Word Stories so much is because it forces me to attempt a certain economy of language that normally I don't bother with.  If the topic is something I'm interested in, and you let me, I'll ramble on until you slap me across the face.  But because I also like to ramble, and I enjoy the satisfaction of putting down complete sentences, I have a hard time with text messaging, and to a lesser extent, instant messaging.  Because I can type relatively fast, I have no problem putting down full complete thoughts in IM.  Though I think it drives the people I talk to a little nuts when I do.  There is nothing more frustrating than thumbing out a long message, only to fat finger the "end" button and have it all go away (iPhone owners may take this moment to brag in 3... 2...1... go).

I certainly don't like the language that has cropped up to support it either.  "c u l8r" just doesn't do it for me.  I want to write more, but end up going with the flow just to get it out.  Half the time I leave a text conversation not knowing exactly what was said.  Short messages leave too much to interpretation in my mind.  Sometimes I hit send... and think... "Crap... that's not what I meant!"  That drives the engineer in me nuts.  That's not to say that texting doesn't have it's place.  There are times when talking on the phone isn't convenient, or it's too loud, and texting works great.  I'm all for it then.

It turns out by admitting this, I'm starting to really show my age...

"I only use e-mail for my business and to get sponsors," Martina Butler, the host of the teen podcast Emo Girl Talk, said during a panel discussion here at the Mashup 2007 conference, which is focused on the technology generation. With friends, Bulter said she only sends notes via a social network.

"Sometimes I say I e-mailed you, but I mean I Myspace'd or Facebook'ed you," she said.
...
Butler replied that she uses Facebook on her cell phone. "I need (Facebook) everywhere I go, but I log into e-mail only once a week," she said.

More and more, social networks are playing a bigger role on the cell phone. In the last six to nine months, teens in the United States have taken to text messaging in numbers that rival usage in Europe and Asia. According to market research firm JupiterResearch, 80 percent of teens with cell phones regularly use text messaging.

Exactly when did talking on the phone go out of style?