I remember my first text. I was living in Mauritania, West Africa, teaching at a university, and one of my students wrote to ask me when he could bring me a draft of his thesis. (I tried to keep my phone number from them, but as soon as one of my hundred-plus students had it, I might as well have written it on the board.)
My students were eager to teach me to text, and to introduce me to the wonders of T9, a program that automatically figures out what word you’re trying to type and does it for you. It didn’t take me long to be texting like a pro. But I must admit, txt spk is beyond me. And txt spk in French is far beyond even that! I looked over her shoulder once as Ilsa was instant messaging with a male friend from her French junior high. “Slut,” he’d written. I was shocked! “Ilsa, he shouldn’t be calling you that!” I started. But she was mystified at my reaction. He’d just written “salut”, or “hello.”
All this is a very long introduction to a fun new book called When Parents Text: So Much Said…So Little Understood
When Parents Text
When I first received my review copy, I somehow expected it to be an appropriate gift for adult kids, newly-moved-out and receiving texts from people who write things like “My fingers are saying words!” But the more I read it, the more I thought it would be a good gift to the parents themselves. Somehow, the texts show the enduring love and mutual dependence of parent and adult child, and even when you’re laughing helplessly, the book is strangely heart-warming in a good way.
This would make a great gift for parents, young adult children, teens or grandparents.
Elizabeth has to admit that sometimes, T9 has caused her to send some unintelligible texts herself. Read more at her blog Planet Nomad.
My oldest does have a cell phone, but one of the ancient flip phones and we do not have him on our texting plan, so this is still a wee bit away in our future. But, when the time comes, I think I will enjoy being able to connect with him in just a few characters. 🙂
That does sound very funny! My daughter sort of laughs at my insistence of using “real words” and so sometimes I purposefully go overboard with text speak to make her laugh.
I started texting with my teenagers and so much good has come out of it, but also some hilarious stuff. I didn’t “get” the taglines and kept asking what they meant!!!
My kids know and understand that the text “I need to go home” is a no questions asked no punishment way out of a bad situation–a party that wasn’t supposed to be THAT type party, a possible fight, etc. It works. Try it.
This looks hysterical and I thinkl I have to read it and give a copy to my parents. My mom has her engineering degree from Cornell but sometimes technology mves faster than the smartest mommy!