cell phone Text messaging by cell phone, not by computer (most of the time), promotes illiteracy and can even result in death. You may be thinking to yourself that I'm completely full of shiitake or some other colorful metaphors, but I don't have to prove I'm right.


In The News

While I was in back in the United States in February and March, I watched the news on television almost every day. Reading the news on the Internet just isn't the same. I was surprised by how many of the local automotive accidents were attributed to cell phone usage while driving and even more surprised that text messaging was the culprit instead of voice chatting.

Some of those accidents resulted in the death of drivers, passengers, or both.

"Texting" Observations

Before I brought a cell phone back with me to the Philippines, I observed my relatives in the U.S. sending and receiving text messages. Since I've returned, I've observed relatives in the Philippines sending and receiving text messages. Now, I'm starting to send and receive text messages on a regular basis. I've seen all kinds of abbreviations for words and phrases I'd never expect to be abbreviated, along with the usual suspects.

When I worked at a trucking company, every single text character transmitted from operations to the individual trucks cost money. It made sense to abbreviate as much as possible. We even had lists of appropriate abbreviations for use on our end as well as by the truck drivers. Text messaging by mobile phone is charged per message, not by text character. Why is it then that no one seems to want to spell out anything?

If you're annoyed by the text abbreviations that people use, put yourself in my position. Not only do I have to figure out the abbreviations for the English words, I also have to figure out the abbreviations for the Tagalog (Filipino) words. I never send abbreviated text messages because I want to be understood by every recipient. I even send text through the IM to my wife's cell phone in the U.S. Neither of us abbreviate anything to each other. Despite English being her second language, her spelling and grammar is better than most native English users.

Other Observations

If you've ever observed people walking and talking on their cell phones, or seeming to talk to themselves because you don't see the earpieces they're using, you ought to watch people keying in text messages or reading text messages while they're walking. Locally, they pay more attention to their cell phones than what's going on around them. You can't imagine how many times I've had to slam on my brakes for people walking into the street while gawking at their cell phones.

The most annoying thing I've dealt with is when I'm having a conversation and the person I'm talking to interrupts me so he or she can read a text message and reply. By the time his or her attention is back on me, I've forgotten what I was going to say next.

Proposed Text Messaging Improvements

As part of an experiment I've been conducting for more than a month, I've been asking people to spell out the word they're abbreviating on their cell phone. Guess what? More than half of them can't spell the words correctly, even in their own language. I'm no spelling bee champion myself, but I find it very sad when an American can't spell simple words in English or when a Filipino can't spell simple words in Tagalog. They abbreviate the text messages because they don't know the correct spelling and don't want to look like fools by trying to spell them out.

Cell phone manufacturers can promote literacy if they choose to do so. It shouldn't be too hard to include acronym finders and auto-complete functions that expand abbreviations into full words and phrases in the operating systems of even the cheapest cell phones. Common abbreviations would eventually be standardized and people would at least be able to read in full text.

There are no improvements I can suggest to replace human stupidity.

What do you think?

Cell phones aren't the only devices where people abbreviate needlessly. I see it on the instant messengers and even on blogs. Thank goodness the people I follow on Twitter only abbreviate the website addresses they point me to (using short URL services).

Am I naive in thinking that people will eventually change, or that the companies that make cell phones (or control the operating systems) will ever make text messaging a better experience? Am I the only one being annoyed on a regular basis? Am I the only one who cares?