Texting with T9 (Grammy fails the texting test)

18 years ago

The following is my blog entry for today. How are you at texting?

***********************************************

I hadn't texted in a while, but when my granddaughter sent me a message a few months ago I figured I knew how to reply. It's like riding a bicycle, right?

Not exactly. Imagine learning how to ride a bicycle and then trying to apply those skills to a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy. What I didn't know was that my new cell phone had T9 text messaging. For those who don't know (and I still barely know it myself), T9 anticipates what you want to say and says it without requiring a lot of keying on your part. People under 18 love it. People between 18 and 25 probably love it, too. Some people between the ages of 25 and 45 probably think it's pretty cool at least some of the time. And then there are the rest of us.

Anyway, my granddaughter texted me to ask when I was going to pick her up. I don't remember the exact wording of my intended answer, but I do remember that it came out Demo nonononono. I thought I'd screwed it up, so I erased it and tried again. This time was worse: nnnon dfkawe lelamslelfn nonon. I know when to quit, so I hit send.

A minute later came my granddaughter's reply: You really need to work on this, Grammy.

I pretty much forgot about texting until today, when I received another message from my granddaughter: Is it hot out today? Let's see if you've improved any.

Still completely clueless about T9 (and any number of other things), I sat in my car in the Staples parking lot with the intention of slowly and carefully composing a reply. What I ended up with was Bacon cab cannon? It even put the question mark in for me. I sent it, and then I rolled up the window and laughed myself silly.

My 17-year-old texter par excellance wasted no time replying: Awesome! Just as I thought. Hahahahahah I love you.

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Comments (18)

Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana
18 years ago
LMAO...Thanks for sharing...love it!
Lindsey_CA
18 years ago
Hubs and I both fall into the "And then there are the rest of us" category, being on the high side of 50. And we both hate, hate, hate the "predictive text" feature. It's one of the first personalization tweaks I make to new phones when we get them -- to disable the predictive text.

Your granddaughter sounds like a truly wonderful girl!
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JoanMN
18 years ago
I can't even text "stop" when I get a junk message...and I have to pay 10 cents to get it,plus tax. TMobil says I can't just block texts. Stupid.
JoanMN
maryanntx
18 years ago
You can probably turn off the T9 so that it will show exactly what you type. I don't text often because it takes me too long. One or two word texts are my best!

I don't see how the young ones can do it so fast! Practice, I guess.
grammahony
18 years ago
I'd hate that. I don't like to text. It's easier and faster to just call the person. Mine must be turned off (if I even have that feature) because I haven't noticed garbled answers showing up.
Leslie
Mystical Manns
18 years ago
I don't mind texting, but hate the Triple-tap feature on most phones where you have to tap-tap-tap to get to the letter you want. So I make sure to have a phone with a qwerty keyboard to make it easier on me. I guess because of that, I hadn't heard about the T-9 feature ... my gosh that would drive me nuts too! That phone cannot POSSIBLY know what I intend to say since I use full words when I text! LOL!
janie_ga
18 years ago
Yeh, I am 35 and cannot text on the phone. If you are near a computer, your cell phone company usually has a "send a text emssage" screen adn you can use a real keyboard. Eric will text me on thephone and I will text him back when I get to a computer!
nicole_ont
18 years ago
Oh that's so funny! "Bacon cab cannon"! I love it!

My mom (61) does the same thing, so she quit attempting to send text messages. Claude and I send each other text messages throughout the day - it's just not possible to phone every time we have something quick to say, and I love the T9 feature - speeds things up considerably. My biggest problem with texting is that I just cannot cannot cannot bring myself to use slang or short forms of words like people do - "UR 2 gr8".... I have to type out full sentences with correct punctuation and capitalization and stuff. So that makes me quite uncool with the texting generation.
kayjones
18 years ago
So how does one text? I would love to learn - anyone want to post the instructions?
waddles
18 years ago
DH loves the T9 feature but I just can't get the hang of it I do better with just the letters.
alisande
Original Author
18 years ago
Well, Kay, I'm certainly not going to post instructions! LOL
jayokie
18 years ago
The auto feature makes me furious....I had the cell phone ofc turn it off on mine --- I sure didn't know how to do it! I can barely figure out the most basic messages. I'd rather dial & talk! It's certainly faster for me.
mollylexipatches
18 years ago
I'm right there with you Nicole! I HATE the 'slang' of texting. I'm a grammar freak, so if it's the 'cute' stuff, I get annoyed. lol Granted if my texts exceed the limit, I might convert to the slang, but I usually just shorten my message.

~Cindy Jo
jennmonkey
18 years ago
I love T9! Once I learned how to use it, it made texting soooo much faster. I can't bring myself to use the slang texting either. drives me nuts.

If your phone automatically does it and you don't like it, you can go in and switch it to ABC mode.
evatx
18 years ago
It takes me so long to type a text message, I'd probably like a feature that would help me out. Last try was to my niece's DIL and it showed up to her as "No content." It costs 15 cents to send or receive a text, so since I'm so lousy at it, I don't do it often.
liz
18 years ago
my son can text faster the I can type...I don't understand it...(well yes I do)...but I for the most part just dial the number and TALK!! My DS is NOT allowed to take his phone to school...I did a little investigating and found 43 text messages in one day during school hours...If he's texting,,,,he's not listening...BUT...on the other hand...I'm torn...cause if an emergency arises...I want him to have his phone...but I figure he can borrow someone's...so the phone stays home!
Lindsey_CA
18 years ago
"So how does one text? I would love to learn - anyone want to post the instructions?"

Basically, you just bring up the menu, then choose "Message." Choose "Text" for the type. Depending on your model phone, you "address" the message by pulling from a "recently used" list, or you can type in the phone number, or you can bring up your list of phonebook/contact names and choose from the list.

Then you put the cursor into the area where you enter the text and type out your message. If you have a phone with a "QWERTY" keyboard, you type it just as you would on a typewriter or computer keyboard. If you have a phone where you use the "number keypad," you have to press the "2" key three times before you'd get a "c" or the "3" key twice to get an "e," and so on. Usually pressing the "star" key brings up a selection of things like a period, comma, hyphen, question mark, etc. When you're done entering the text, you push the appropriate key/button to "Send."
kayjones
18 years ago
Lindsey - THANKS for the clear instructions! I will try that today.

Texting with T9 (Grammy fails the texting test)

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Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana

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Texting with T9 (Grammy fails the texting test)

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