I have a love and hate relationship with text-messaging. Interestingly, it’s easier to get a response from the younger generation than voice mail or email. Christopher Null in PC World:

It is not necessarily rude to text while you’re in the presence of others—if the point of the text message is to involve the recipient in the physical gathering. On the other hand, communicating extensively via text when you should be fully engaged in what’s going on in the real world will surely annoy those around you. Again the comparison of a texting session to a phone call is apt and should give you a sense of how to behave.

Amen.