Apparently I'm not the only one who is turned off by people texting instead of talking.

The preferred way to communicate in the 21st century is to flick on your BlackBerry or iPhone and text someone a frivolous "hi" or "whazup?"

In my Nov. 3 column, I mentioned I got a tongue lashing from my two sisters-in-law when I told them I limited my daughter to 200 texts per month to teach her the value of talking to someone.

I asked readers to offer opinions, and many responded in favor of my take. Here's what some of you dear readers had to say:

"Ninety-nine percent of what goes on during a text conversation is just gossip that ends up creating problems with teens anyway. Both my wife and I do not have text on our phones and never will. It's a very cold and impersonal way of communicating that is not in our best interest."

-- Scott Jones, Riverton

One woman told me that her daughter had become the victim of text harassment by other girls who were sending hurtful, rude messages to her, resulting her in changing schools. I'm leaving the mother's name out:

"As a parent, I guess my message is this: You do have the right to know who your kids are texting and to exercise the option to review their sent messages, to set limits in a limitless world, and to be aware if your child's habits with this method of 'communicating' seem to change."

And it's not just older readers who responded in favor of limiting texting. Mike Sare, a 22-year-old college student, wrote:

"It should go unsaid that kids don't need to be and shouldn't be allowed to text during school hours, at the dinner table and during family activities that benefit from everybody actively participating and communicating with each other."

A local woman who did not want to be identified offered this tragic story:

"A texting teenage girl ... ran a stop sign one morning and killed a father of five young children in our quiet Bluffdale neighborhood."

There were some who disagreed with my take on texting.

The fact is that texting is generally superior to normal cell phone conversations for several reasons: (a) it's quiet, (b) it's often quicker, (c) you have a record of the conversation if you need to refer back to it and finally, (d) texts can often get through in places where cell service is spotty. --- Mark C. Quinn