I got a text message today.
I'm not a big cell phone kinda guy, and the phone I have I don't use all that much, so receiving any kind of message is a big deal. I'm not going to tell you what it said, (As it's none of your goddamn business,) but it did make me think.
You know what it reminds me of? Passing notes in class.
You don't have a lot of space, so you have to state what you are going to say in the most concise terms possible. When I passed notes in class, it was on minuscule bits of paper that made a microdot look unwieldy. I was able to fold that fucker so tiny that it was like most of it's mass went into another dimension.
And just like in class you don't want anyone to see what is being passed. As I was checking my message, someone was walking by, and I hid that text like I was hiding National Security secrets. Nosy bastards.
It's a pain to type anything on those keys, but in time I'm sure it could be mastered. I've seen some of the people I work with do it, and they seem to have no difficulties. I refuse to use that damn shorthand shit, (C U L8Tr?) as I think it would make any message you send sound stupid.
And the last stupid note I passed in class was one of those "Do you like me - yes/no". After that, all my notes were works of art. (I mentioned my origami talents earlier).
And the Teacher never saw.
Later.
I hear that Toronto bike-messengers now use TXT/SMS almost exclusively for dispatch - an example I have only because I read an article about a guy who became a bikey in Toronto - and specifically use their left hand exclusively to do the sending. Something about rinding a bike in traffic, I guess, needs the right hand more than the left.
ReplyDeleteI use SMS a LOT, and I despise the nubespek that is the L8R/G2G/<3 crap that seems to only be popular with the 90210/Ghetskheeee set. Maybe it's because I lean on the T9 a lot, or maybe I have 3 digits in my IQ and can spell words so I don't need to abbreviate them.
I need to find a phone which doesn't fucking interrupt the message I'm typing, with great pause, only to show me a new message has arrived. That shit pisses me off.
And Google needs to instantiate a Jabber<->SMS gateway to MaBell, so that I can send SMS to any jabber client in the world. Forever.