Texting

by Pat Gulley

Guess who is texting these days? Me! Shocking as my phone and it’s ‘press twice for the letter B’ is a dinosaur compared to everything advertised on television—not TV these days. And I’ve been reading a lot of articles and blogs about editing and spelling lately, so it occurred to me that maybe it would be easier if I learned all those ‘texting’ words I see so often.


So, I found this site:

http://www.gaarde.org/acronyms/

And after I laughed for several minutes, I decided it was like learning codes. I spent almost 40 years in the travel industry, codes are a given, every city and airport has a 3-letter code, every airline has a 2-letter code—everything is in code, so I could do this.

30 minutes later, my eyes blurred (okay the cataract surgery had something to do with it) and it occurred to me that many of these----things (words?) stood for things I would never say. I would never use them, and couldn’t expect anyone I texted to understand them, so why bother to learn them? I’d have to print them out to remember them.

I can understand some abbreviations that have come into usage: LOL is so widely used I expect to see it on one of those lists of things that needs banning, but it is understandable, as is OTOH and JMHO. But ‘u’ for you, ‘lite’ for the small spectrum the human race live within—not so much. And has anyone really figured out how lite applies to food? More confusion than exact information—not info. BFF is the most nonsensical one for me, but will allow that if it stays with the group under the age of 20 it is okay—not OK it suits the teen time.

Well the long and the short of it, after texting several times with my fat fingers I discovered that if I kept this phone it would be best to grow my thumbnails longer because the letters on my keypad are about the size of a grain of salt. Meaning learning to type hasn’t done me a bit of good because I’m back to one-fingering, I mean, one-thumbing it. And, yes, all those abbreviations would come in handy, but only if I said things like that. Are we expected to form a new way of talking too? And that is when, this time for some good, a little guilt set in. I’m a writer, editing is a major part of my daily routine and good spelling and grammar counts for a lot. I should never concede to this form of spelling or usage or talking. It would ruin my voice, my style. So, I’m texting and taking more time than seems right to write what should only be a quick note. I know I’m taking way to much time, because the return responses barely give me time to put down the phone and raise my coffee cup or wine glass to my lips.

Any ideas? I know, I know, get a new phone. Well, I have gone into the stores to look. Mind boggling. I leave with an even bigger headache and no new phone.