"There have been a number of times when I’ve been split up from friends at large venues - not being able to text each other to meet up is inconvenient."
Dude.
What do you think people did at Rolling Stones or Zeppelin concerts in the 60-70's?
What do you think people did at Michael Jackson concerts in the 80's?
What do you think people did at Nirvana and Pearl Jam concerts in the 90's?
People have lived without text messaging far longer that we've had it. If this is your chief complaint, I think you need to think harder about the problem space.
Nobody said anything about not being able to live.
But if people attending your 3 random examples had known a mobile phone, perhaps they'd have chosen the convenience over (worst case) spending some of the concert trying to find their friends. We can't know.
Dude.
What do you think people did at Rolling Stones or Zeppelin concerts in the 60-70's?
What do you think people did at Michael Jackson concerts in the 80's?
What do you think people did at Nirvana and Pearl Jam concerts in the 90's?
People have lived without text messaging far longer that we've had it. If this is your chief complaint, I think you need to think harder about the problem space.