Text-Happy Trigger Fingers

Put the phone down and your hands behind your head

An epidemic is occuring: people with their faces buried in their phones, frenzied fingers click-click-clicking away in a whirlwind of texts. You see it everywhere: in the classroom, at the grocery store, on the road, in the airport, during a church service, at the movie theater, out at a restaurant, even in your own home.  I like to call this phenomena TEXT-HAPPY TRIGGER FINGERS (TTF).

 TTF belongs to the family of addiction diseases such as alcoholism, drug-abuse, and playing WOW. Causes of TTF are believed to be: Narcissicm, Loneliness, ADD, Boredom, and/or Vanity.

  

However, there are different levels of symptom severity. Stages include:

Stage 1: Irritating

At the beginning stage of TTF, you are being irritating. Your texting is noticeable and slightly bothersome, but not really worth the hassle of making a big fuss. Texts equal 1-2 every  5 minutes.

Stage 2: Annoying

At Stage 2, you are being annoying. The amount of texting has progressed and is starting to piss people off. Someone might politely crack a joke about your texting or you might see a few nudges or eye rolls every time your phone buzzes. Texts equal 3-4  every 5 minutes.

Stage 3: Infuriating

In the most severe stage of TTF, you are infuriating people. Your texting is so utterly obnoxious that it is making people angry. Those who are a bit more confrontational may snap at you to put your phone away. Others will just stop asking you to hang out period. Texts equal 5+ every 5 minutes.

I’m not one to be hypocritical: I too, have fell victim to TTF in the past. I never understood how my friends could get so annoyed by my texting. Luckily, my friends were vocal enough to yell at me every time I started to relapse. However, most times people aren’t comfortable being vocal and instead sit there and suffer while the TTF-er goes hog wild.  I never understood the severity of this disease until I saw other people who had more severe addictions than myself.

You may think that you are not bothering anyone, but the reality is: you are being extremely annoying and you need to stop. If you do it when you are by yourself that’s fine, but PLEASE try to keep the texting to a minimal when you are around other people because it is distracting, inconsiderate, and rude.

Even if you have TTF, there is a cure: put the phone down and live in the now. Enjoy the people around you instead of burying your face in your phone. Hide your phone if you have to or else other people will.

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