Saturday, March 1, 2008

My Life in Text Messages

Like many parents today, we shuttle a lot, especially my sophomore son, who is involved in many before and after school activities that require me or his dad to pick him up, drop him off, etc. (We live 20 minutes from school, so you can imagine how fun that is.) And no, I am in no hurry for Kyle to get his driver's license (that's another post!), so I do not complain.

Like all Digital Natives, Kyle loves to text. Silly me, the Digital Immigrant thinks that it's a pain in the butt to type in, "What time is your Student Council meeting going to be over?" when I can simply call him and get the answer faster. Regardless, I'm trying to get with the 21st century, so I try to text now and then, especially when responding to one of his texts.

In case you don't know, there is a short-cut on everyone's cellphone that allows you to send a pre-typed text message called a "Quick Text." When you go to your Quick Texts, you'll find commonly used messages, such as "Arriving in 15 minutes," "Yes" "Thank you," etc.

My Quick Text also allow me to program my own short messages that I use often, and I have done so. The phone keeps them in a list in order of how often I used them. As I waited in my car last night for Kyle to come out of the high school, I sent a text to him and realized that my Quick Texts provide a snapshot into my life. This says it all:
Numbers 1-3 are used quite often. Number 4 is used when I am sick of texting and want to talk to the actual human Kyle. Number 5 is for football season (naturally) and goes mostly to out-of-state friends/family at appropriate times.

Speaking of texting, I read a VERY funny post today on the blog of A Novel Woman. Check it out, but be careful (you might need toilet paper).

5 comments:

  1. I don't text. I have an old school cell phone and i'm not even sure I could if I wanted to ?

    I love the snapshot of your life.
    It's communication on a whole different level.
    ;)

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  2. I have made my own quick text too.

    btw, I've tried calling my father to ask about kissing time but he didn't answer so... as soon as I get a hold of him I'll ask. Just didn't want you to think I'd forgotten.

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  3. You are far more advanced than I am!

    Thanks for the tip, I could use those same messages for my teen girls (although I will probably have my oldest show me how to enter, then access them)!

    It sucks to be technically challenged. For heaven's sake...I used to program my mom's VCR clock for her...Now my kids have to do things like that for me!

    Love your mom's sayings! I have heard so many of them growing up, they brought a smile to my face.

    Terri

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  4. Thanks for sending me over there. That was hilarious. I haven't bother to set up Quick Text. I suppose I should. I hate texting and rarely do it.

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  5. It is funny how much a generation can change-- my parents are without cell phones or computers, and my mom called MP3 players any stream of random letters and numbers!

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