Texting or Working? That is the question ...

We have become a world of people that look like this: bent over, face lit up by LCD screen, fingers moving. I don't even have to tell you what I'm talking about and you know exactly what I'm talking about. The worse part of our little e-world is the completely loss of social graces. We text (at least try to) while driving, so they have to make a law to stop this. Now texting while driving is the craziest thing -- and obviously not safe. I once drove with a former associate that I had to tell her, "Quit texting! You're scaring me!" But the biggest offenses include: talking on the cell phone while socializing with someone else, talking on the cell phone during a meal with someone else; talking or texting in the car while you're with someone else; and my favorite, texting in the movie theatre. I once worked with this woman whose obsession with texting ran so deep, she texted non-stop. The only problem was it wasn't really for business. And when it came to answering actual business calls, well, she ignored those. At first, I thought she was texting about business, but then over time I came to realize she was either texting friends, flirting with potential boyfriends she met online, or texting family. All the while, she was supposedly working. Texting is kind of interesting that way too. If you do text for business, all your personal stuff can be masked by doing it for everything. The least busiest person can make it appear as though they are just swamped. The non-stop texting is really a veil for playing and goofing off. So, don't be fooled if someone spends more time moving their fingers on a keyboard than getting actual work done. It's all just a smoke screen!