Texting Help for Dummies (Over 50)!

Texting For Adults Who Grew Up Talking on Phones!

When you were a kid, were phones things that plugged into the wall, and were used for talking on? Did a mobile communicator seem like something from a Star Trek Episode or a Dick Tracy cartoon strip? Yeah, me too. But now if I want to communicate with my kids, it seems like I have to be able to read the small text that appears on my phone. And I not only have to read it, I have to respond it it!

I don’t have a fancy phone with a typewriter (lol) keyboard, but I only have a normal phone keypad. The phones with the keyboards are too large, and I’ve gotten used to the convenience of a small flip phone I can slide into a pocket in my purse. Besides, I keep using up my own credits to get my kids fancier phones, and I seem to be the last in line for upgrades.

CN U RD THS?

But if I want to communicate with the younger generation, I have to text or get left out of the loop these days. Here are some of my best tips for texting.

• The predictive text feature can be your friend. You can switch it on or off, but if it is on, it fills in its best guess for a word after your start typing it. If it is the wrong word, you can backspace over it and fill in the correct one. It seems to work pretty well though, and it can save a lot of time.
• Learn the lingo. The kids use a lot of abbreviations to save keystrokes. TTL (Talk To You Later), YBS (You’ll be Sorry),  and <3 (Love/Heart) seem to be common ones these days. Of course, do not forget the classic – ROLF (Rolling on Floor Laughing)! These seemed to emerge from computer chat lingo, and they transferred over the texting. It amuses me to hear these in speech these days. I guess this is how language evolves.
• Use Common shortcuts. Lots of times, you can substitute numbers for words or sounds. i.e. 2 = too, two, to. w8 = wait. Don’t worry, your kids will probably unerstand it in context of your message. You can also remove vowels from common words. i.e. CN U RD THIS?

Advantages to Texting over Calling

Well, we can all assume that our teen and young adult kids like to text us for a couple of reasons. If their friends are present, they can communicate with us without letting others know they are chatting with their mom or dad! Maybe their friends think they are chatting with somebody cool! I also have to believe they text me because they do understand they have me at a disadvantage. I am not likely to lecture them through a text message, and so they can just get the short answer to a question.

But are there advantages for you to take up texting? Well, sometimes you want to communicate something without having to have a long discussion. Let’s say you want to tell one person, or a group of people, that you will meet them at noon. It is much simpler to send a group text then to have to call and have a discussion with multiple people! And you can just get back simple replies, again avoiding long discussions with one or more people. Texting is a new tool, and it has its place!

Text Message Warnings

Here are some warnings about texting that I, or people I know, have learned the hard way!

• It may seem obvious, but apparently new laws demonstrate that it is not. Do not text while driving or operating any sort of heavy machinery! I know that my kid’s school just posted sign that there is a $200 fine for texting (or using a phone at all)  in that area. Of course, that is always when my phone seems to ring or beep. But I know I have to wait until I am parked to respond to it.
• Watch your bills. I just read a story about a kid who ran up a $22,000 fine because his parents had not purchased an unlimited text plan. This may seem hard to believe, but certain people in my family have messed up and gotten a non-trivial $1,000 bill by going over the plan. These kids can text as fast as they can talk, and .20 a text may seem trivial. But .20 multipled by some factors of thousands adds up fast! If you think your family will text a lot, please consider adding that to your plan. It is much better to upgrade for $24.99 now than to get hit with an unpleasant surprise next month.

Do you have any texting tales or hints? Go ahead and register for free so you can post them in the comments box!

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