Over the years I have worked on low budget video and film projects with people who have come to Los Angeles from all over the world, the emphasis on low budget, and all over the world.
One characteristic that I have always found a bit alienating (ha ha) are the foreign language discussions that get intermixed within the English discussions. The foreign language discussion instantly excludes half the set, and those who are speaking in the other language don't seem to mind that others on the set can't follow along.
So when texting came along, it was deja vu all over again. I can be standing next to somebody who one moment was talking to me, then the next is engaged in a foreign language discussion with an invisible friend via the language of textila (Ok I made textila up). One second they are talking to me, the next, they are immersed in textilian discussions with someone who is not even there!
Can you imagine hit men who use texters to set up targets. Assistant Texter hit man texting to hit man "yeah, he's standing right next to me, he told me he will be here for the next 15 minutes."
Assistant Texter hit man turns to target, "where did you say you were going next?" Target politely answers...
Assistant Texter hit man texts, "Will then be going to see a movie around the corner", then dinner across the street"
"Thank you and tell target to have a really good last night of his life" the hit man texts back to the assistant texter hit man. "ha ha" assistant texter hit man texts back.
While I don't have an answer to the above scenario other than "don't talk to strange texter's", especially if they ask you what you are doing that evening and then immediately text after your response, I do propose a new texting rule for families.
Texting should have an audio option that I call "loudcast". A parental unit should have the right to demand that any texting being done in their presence by their offspring, be heard by them before it is transmitted, aka "loudcast". Imagine being able to playback all of your children's text messages for the entire day in loudcast.
I bet Verizon will salivate if they are given this idea.
Dare I claim to having come up with two new words in the same article, textila and loudcasting (Textila and Loudcasting kind of sounds like a Thema and Louise movie updated for the hand gadget age).
Imagine your son Jimmy is texting his friend about how he can't stand his parents, aka you and spouse, and doing it while you are standing just a few feet away (Is Jimmy training to be a future "assistant texter" hit man?). When Jimmy hits the send button, I am proposing that the text message is "loudcast" loud enough for his parents to hear the text message, should the parents choose to want to hear the message.
Isn't the internet great for sharing cool ideas that will get stolen and no numeration given.
So there is my contribution to the world today, Textila and Loudcast, playing at a theatre near you. Textila is a person who engages in a texting discussion while ignoring people in the same room, Loudcasting lets you listen to your children's text messages whenever they begin to text with you in the room.
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