Texting

Dara pointed me at this article, noting that she had tried to get Mom turned on to the text message thing but to no avail.

"The key factor in whether you like to do this is age," says Lewis Ward, an analyst for IDC, a worldwide market research company. "Teenagers and younger adults are more likely to do text messaging and IM (instant messaging)."

I used to think, "Who needs yet another way to communicate. I've got a phone, a cell phone, email, and instant messenger. I need another way to stay connected like I need a hole in the head." Still, I think we're finding text messaging to be more useful and less obtrusive than a cell phone call, so we're doing it quite a bit. After this article, I can feel young and trendy while I'm at it. These factors are not to be underestimated as I home in on the big five oh.