I gotta vent to someone so here's as good a place as any. What in the world is the big deal with texting on phones???

I'll make this as short as I can. My niece (12 yrs old) got a cell phone about 6 months ago. Now first off I fail to see where a little 12yr old girl needs to have a cell phone but she's not my daughter so it's not may place to say, anyway. Anytime my sisters family comes over anymore all my niece does is have her phone out texting. Out comes the phone and the thumbs are going 100mph. It's no lie at all when I say not even a full 2 minutes goes by without her flipping her phone up and texting. They came over to the house today to do some Christmas stuff like bake cookies and such and in the 4 hrs they were here I honestly would guess she sent well over 200 text messages. And it's about the lamest things as well. Crap like-

"what u doin?"
"nothin U?"
"nothin i'm bored"
"me 2"
"i'm gonna get a sandwich"
"K I already ate"
"K brb"


Stuff like the above is so important that you have to constantly have a life line connected via a phone to talk to someone about??

It's not just my young niece either. My 41yr old sister was even texting while she was here, and its the same lame type of conversations. Her friend texted her so I asked "what did she want"....my sisters reply..

"Nothing, shes at the laundromat"

Being at the laundromat is such breaking news you have to text someone to tell them your there?

I keep in touch with friends, but I usually will sit down and pick up the phone once a week and actually place a phone call to talk to them in person (imagine that!) We'll talk for 10-15mins get caught up on whats new and that's it. I don't need to know they are bored, or what they had to eat for lunch, or that they just stubbed their toe or any other mundane thing.

Am I the only person on earth that just does not get this whole texting thing? maybe I'm getting old I dunno.

Steve