back to article Britain: A nation of txt addicts who prefer Twitter to phoning mum

Brits are chatting online and spewing messages from phones more than ever as gossiping in voice calls declines for the first time. Calling from mobiles is only down a smidgen on last year, slipping about 1 per cent, according to an annual report from communications watchdog Ofcom. But the volume of fixed-line calls dropped by …

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  1. IT Hack
    Pint

    Twatter

    I hate myself for having a twatter account.

    I hate myself even more for actually sending a twatter once.

    Pint coz well people should twatter when half cut for shits and giggles.

  2. illiad

    they missed a detail...

    The *main* plus about a text, is that it does not waste the recipients time.. you dont HAVE to answer it immediately, unlike most voice calls.. - you will get a silent notification, and then you can answer back when the boss isn't looking, or when you have finished what you were doing.. :)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      What he said

      same with email. Also very convenient, because you have a definite trail. All you have with a phone call (unless you are in a regulated industry) is a he-said/she-said account.

      I had a colleague, a while back who insisted on phoning before anything. He was then surprised when people were either out, couldn't deal with him immediately (thus leading to a "when can you get back" situation), or in a few cases simply denied point-blank ever being spoken too.

      Years of less than scrupulous colleagues has taught me to put *everything* into an email, and make judicious use of the "cc" field.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: they missed a detail...

      "you dont HAVE to answer it immediately, unlike most voice calls."

      Who says that you have to answer immediately? Are you under the THUMB perhaps?

  3. illiad

    another benefit of txt..

    -- it is an easy way to tell if you mates phone is on/ in range of transponder.. you will get a delivery report, if you have switched on that feature..

    If you are using one of the very cheap services though, it your own fault for being a skinflint!!!

  4. Tapeador
    Unhappy

    So THAT'S what OFCOM are doing instead of regulating telecoms.

  5. illiad

    anothr slow newsday...

    when all the channels are blathering about this rubbish...

    1. John H Woods Silver badge

      Re: anothr slow newsday...

      ...indeed. And I love the widely reported interpretation that we are now 'texting more than we are phoning'. Maybe there are more texts than phone calls, but many text exchanges are multiple texts, and most phone conversations carry more information than texts.

      I'm also not sure why the drop in voice should worry the mobile telcos that much - don't they have a much higher profit margin on text?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: anothr slow newsday...

        They should worry as more and more users turn their back on traditional SMS and "text" via internet based platforms.

        Not that I feel sorry for the mobile networks, those poor 'we made £15Bn profit last year and still managed to offer the WORST customer experience EVER to it's user base' mobile networks.

        Poor them.

  6. Soruk
    FAIL

    10% drop in fixed-line calls

    Is it any wonder, with the call charges and connection fees going up faster than the numbers on a petrol pump?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Surely the title of the article should read:

    Britain: A nation of sad facebook updating, iPhone owning, twatterers, would rather feel smug about their poor choices than call their mum. Tho she wont answer as even she's ashamed of what her offspring have turned into!

  8. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

    Wht R U tlkng About? Txt msgs R gr8! Evrybdy luvs them, n phone calls R old skool!

    I bloody hate text messages. But partly it's my own fault, due to my obsessive need to capitalise and punctuate them properly. Slightly less painful on smartphones than on keypads, I suppose, but I'm not a fan. I'd much rather just pick up the phone, get the conversation done and get off. But I've got quite a few friends who prefer to text, to save time, except you end up taking twice as long to get anything done, sending and receiving multiple texts.

  9. GrumpyJoe
    Thumb Up

    Apart from when the telephone was invented

    almost all long distance human communcation was written. Give it another hundred years and telephone will seem like the blip. The 'ANSWER ME NOW!' insistence of the ring, the expectation of the person on the other end that you are ready and able to reply.

    Given the choice of phoning my wife in her office or just dropping her a text she can reply to quietly at leisure? No competition.

    1. Mike Brown

      Re: Apart from when the telephone was invented

      thats a really intresting point, Your right, spoken long distance communication is incredibly new. ive never looked at it that way.

  10. phlashbios
    Pint

    Connected devices...

    Amount of connected devices in my house that all are hooked up to the internet and used for social networking or other interactive online activities or media serving:

    2 x PC

    2 x Laptop

    1 x Tablet

    2 x Mobile phones

    1 x Kindle

    1 x Xbox (running XBMC)

    1 x Raspberry Pi

    1 x Wi-Fi router (running embedded Linux with media streaming)

    Amount of people using these devices in my house ? Just me :-)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Connected devices...

      Sad.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Connected devices...

        Don't you mean Tragic!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Connected devices...

          I was quite impressed actually. But when does he have time for a w*nk? ;)

          Och I'm coorse the'day.

          Reminds me of a rather wonderful article in a certain newspaper in a certain northeastern oil capital.

          An older gentleman had been pulled up to the beak, for having a jimmy riddle through a neighbour's letterbox.

          In court, he was asked why. Well. I guess they were curious. Answer - "Weel, I wis just bein' a bit coorse"

          Top marks for honesty... still doesn't really explain but anyway.... darn I wish I had kept a copy of that edition.

          Plus the one that had "Human Fireball Horror- colour pictures!" on the front page. That was class too.

  11. Jean Le PHARMACIEN
    WTF?

    TXTS is c**p

    Sorry Txts don't cut it for me - mut be the only person n the UK sending less than 1 per week on average (some else is using al the other 49..). It's not "instant messaging" so no idea when it was sent (unless sender adds that); sent at the mercy of telco network state. All "conversation" lost if you lose/wipe the phone. Email on the other hand has a trail that can be followed - you can always leave it on the server (so available from multiple devices) and it's no more bother on a smartphone. I've lost count of the times people have 'I sent you a txt' only for it to be dlivered days/weeks later.

    Just use email - you know it makes sense (and Twatter can get lost too)

    1. Vic

      Re: TXTS is c**p

      > mut be the only person n the UK sending less than 1 per week on average

      You're not :-)

      Vic.

    2. phuzz Silver badge
      Meh

      Re: TXTS is c**p

      Depending on your phone/network, you should be able to find out when a text was sent, and I have a program that takes the texts on my android phone and backs them up to my gmail.

      I generally use email as well, but I still have a large proportion of friends who either don't have/want email on their phone, or live in an area with such crap signal that texts are the only reliable method of communication (ie poor/non-existent data or voice coverage).

      At the end of the day there's some people I usually talk face to face with, some I phone, some I text and some I email.

  12. Robredz
    FAIL

    Twatter?

    Can't be arsed with twatter, better things to do, as for PhysogBook, I don't bother with it either, people ask my kids, why isn't your dad on Facebook? they opine sadly that he is a boring Linux fanatic who doesn't believe a thing Microsoft or Apple says. it is becoming a regular offender in relationship breakup on Jeremy Kyle, my other half tells me

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