The Perils of Texting

Let’s face it. Texting is here to stay. And it’s not just the young ‘uns that are doing it. I text frequently, especially with good friends who live an ocean and continent away. But I also text when I want to communicate with my sons.

When done right, texting isn’t as immediate as a phone call – impersonal, yes, but sometimes more effective.

Smart phones, on the other hand, often are too smart for their own good. If you have the auto correct feature turned on, it could lead to some mighty funny exchanges. In fact, there’ a website (maybe more than just one) with examples of what happens when auto correct takes over the conversation: http://damnyouautocorrect.com/

All that proves is that just as you can’t always depend on a word processor’s spell check to catch homophonic errors in what you write, you can’t depend on your smart phone to send out the exact message as you typed it.

Lesson for the day: Always proofread the final message before sending it out.

(“Shave my butt,” indeed!)