I tried texting this to the editor...but by the time I sprouted another gray hair, I figured I'd better type instead.
In this day and age, most people do actually chat via text. It's quick, easy for people other than me, and it lets you avoid talking (you all have a mental list of 'text-only friends', I know you do). So, it has its pros, but it also has its cons.
I have sent texts regarding my children, ya' know, Sarah, Ella, and my STD. Yes, my poor Syd (middle child, of course) is not a name my phone recognizes. It continuously corrects me as I type. I continuously correct it back...when I am paying attention. Needless to say, a friend or two out there may think I'm 'airing my dirty laundry'. Let me make it clear. There are no STD's in this house. Only Syd's.
Don't get me wrong; I've started to like texting, even though, for me, It'll never replace the phone. Just ask my husband and kids. They always know the very second I become engrossed in conversation because that is always the very second someone falls down the stairs, needs me to hold a ladder, or requests another roll of toilet paper. Oh, but I shall not go on about such things...grrr.
Anyway, my thumbs have never been worked out like this before. They've only known the space bar, but are now being forced to type words. They're not happy, I tell you. They've dropped a hint or two, typing 'hell' and then hitting send instead of 'hello'. They've repeatedly reworded 'not' to 'nit' (no lice here either people) and giving me a 'v' instead of a 'b' and a 'u' instead of an 'i'.
I thought I replied 'sure' to my husband, but really replied 'sire',
like he was royalty and, I, his peasant staff. Once, when I was texting him about a date-night, I wrote 'Hi, Jon' instead of 'Hi, Hon'.
There was almost no date-night.
I remember the time I sent a text to a Jewish friend for the New Year. 'Happy Jew Year' is what she would have received had my eyes not scanned it before hitting the send button (sorry, Kel). But, sometimes we scan it only as it's already sending. When we realize it's too late, we quickly put our fingers in motion again to take back those words.
My daughter's piano teacher texted me because she was running late one day. 'Hi, honey bunny, you home?' she wrote. I didn't even know what to do with that. I often use terms of endearment with my friends, but didn't think we were at that point in our relationship yet. I stood, looking at the text, confused as to what my reply should be, when my notification went off. 'Stupid auto-correct' she wrote, 'I meant, hi, anybody home?' I was still laughing out loud when she showed up.
Speaking of laugh out loud, just recently, at a girl scout meeting, we were discussing communication and how kids don't listen to the 'noise' of the world anymore...birds chirping, clocks ticking, wind blowing. There's always an electronic device on, or, in hand. My group of girls are now in middle school and all have cell phones. Halfway through the discussion I said I bet their brains didn't work the same anymore and that they couldn't even spell 'laugh out loud'. In unison, they all shouted, 'lol'!
They were so very proud of themselves and look puzzled when I started slowly saying, 'l-a-u-g-h-o-u-t-l-o-u-d'.
Whether we like it or not, text is here to stay (until we can communicate through our thoughts, which I'm sure is not far behind) and our children may struggle, later in life, with spelling words like laugh out loud, or you (u) and your (ur). They want things quick and fast, even if it means making an already-simplified word like 'ok' (in my day it was 'okay') even simpler by replying 'k'.
So, in the language of the young that will, one day, rule the world, TTYL.
