Introducing the iPhone...

[Azselendor]

They have to take your money somehow, you expect service at a reasonable fee! how preposterous!

I used to carry a cellphone with me all the time, but I stopped because I hated people calling me all the time over pointless crap and text messaging is a joke.

I can't figure out why anyone would want to spend ten minutes typing out a text message that you can spend two seconds and call them with the bloody phone -- after all, that's what a cellphone is for!

[AgentZero]

Azselendor said:
I can't figure out why anyone would want to spend ten minutes typing out a text message that you can spend two seconds and call them with the bloody phone -- after all, that's what a cellphone is for!

I'd consider it a matter of etiquette. Phoning someone is sort of like saying, "Drop whatever it is you're doing and pay attention to me NOW!" which is rather rude and not considerate of the fact that the person might be busy at work, in the middle of class, or otherwise not available to take the call. Whereas a text message is sort of like saying, "Hey, I need to relay this information to you, but don't mean to interrupt what you're doing. Read this and respond when you can." Which is a fair bit more polite, don't you think?

[TurinTurambar]

AgentZero said:

I'd consider it a matter of etiquette. Phoning someone is sort of like saying, "Drop whatever it is you're doing and pay attention to me NOW!" which is rather rude and not considerate of the fact that the person might be busy at work, in the middle of class, or otherwise not available to take the call. Whereas a text message is sort of like saying, "Hey, I need to relay this information to you, but don't mean to interrupt what you're doing. Read this and respond when you can." Which is a fair bit more polite, don't you think?

Bingo. I especially appreciate text-messaging being married. My wife and I can exchange small, concise, useful pieces of information that don't interrupt my heavy workload. Texting is far more efficient when dealing with females; they love to talk.
I live in Los Angeles. I would say that cellphones are probably as "prolific" here as they are in Europe. Dealing with the unavoidable downtime of sitting in traffic, in a job where meetings and schedules and appointments dance on a razor's edge, the concept of life without a cellphone to me is unfathomable.

[Renegade 13]

AgentZero said:
I'd consider it a matter of etiquette. Phoning someone is sort of like saying, "Drop whatever it is you're doing and pay attention to me NOW!" which is rather rude and not considerate of the fact that the person might be busy at work, in the middle of class, or otherwise not available to take the call. Whereas a text message is sort of like saying, "Hey, I need to relay this information to you, but don't mean to interrupt what you're doing. Read this and respond when you can." Which is a fair bit more polite, don't you think?

I must say I disagree about texting being more polite. After all, if you didn't want to be interrupted by the phone, you wouldn't have it on, would you? Therefore, by extension, it wouldn't be impolite to give them a call.

You could make the same arguement about a regular land-line that you made for cellphones. Perhaps we should all just stop talking and text everyone about everything?

[Azselendor]

AgentZero said:

I'd consider it a matter of etiquette. Phoning someone is sort of like saying, "Drop whatever it is you're doing and pay attention to me NOW!" which is rather rude and not considerate of the fact that the person might be busy at work, in the middle of class, or otherwise not available to take the call. Whereas a text message is sort of like saying, "Hey, I need to relay this information to you, but don't mean to interrupt what you're doing. Read this and respond when you can." Which is a fair bit more polite, don't you think?

It takes me 2 seconds to turn off the ringer and let voice mail take the call.

[Fyron]

On my phone, I can just squeeze the sides and turn the ringer off (the side volume buttons function as mute during ringing). Not even 2 seconds if its in my pocket, heh.

[Captain Kwok]

Fortunately I can throw a sharpened pencil in only 0.6secs in a typical exam/lecture or meeting atmosphere.

[AgentZero]

Maybe it's just my crazy Irish mindset, but to me someone's intentions play a significant part in the whole politness thing. It's like if you're having a conversation with someone, and another person marches up and interrupts the two of you. You can chose to ignore him and carry on, that doesn't make his interruption any less rude. Same idea with texts messanges vs. calling someone.

But in the end, different parts of the world have different rules of etiquette, and the rules I'm used to say that calling someone is a bit rude, and rather presumptuous but it seems you zany colonials have different ideas on the matter.

[GuyOfDoom]

I wouldn't say that calling someone is rude per say, because it's the phone holders resposibility to manage the volume of their ring tone. Texting is definitely preferable when you're in a venue where having a phone conversation would be difficult due to background noise, etc.