To text or not to text: a generational issue?

"I have a young friend who believes in the gospel of multitasking," writes columnist John Ramuson in The Salt Lake City News. He continues, "She is impatient with me because I refuse to send or to receive text messages. If she wants to convey perishable information to me, she has to either call on the telephone or knock on the door. Neither strikes her as an efficient alternative. In her domain of text-based association, I am the odd-ball Luddite.

"I take the heretical view that multitasking is inefficient and probably unhealthy. I don’t text because my ordinary life does not lend itself to hourly status reports. Most people are like me. We all have too few stunning insights to intrude into others’ business with the thought of the moment. Besides, who has extra hours in the day to peck out banality on a miniature keyboard?

"My friend says the basis of our disagreement is generational. Simply stated, her generation texts; mine doesn’t. She is partially right. Our paradigms are as different as analog and digital. My paradigm took shape in the pre-Internet age. My cohorts worked in offices, shops, schools or factories. We didn’t devote hours every day to e-mail or surfing the Web. We didn’t telephone our friends, spouses or children on company time. We made long-distance calls only on Sunday when the rates dropped." Read more in the posting online.