T-9 Texting

I remember the first time I was notified about texting. I was in a car with my buddy Fruin, who told me he thought texting was a "more efficient" means of communication. I thought he was out of his mind, and figured I would never send people text messages. This is example 4,798 of why I'm a total moron.

I also remember being taught T-9 texting. This complete stalker named Megan Pukala who was completely obsessed with me demanded I learn it so she could get text messages from me a lot faster. (She has a lot of issues. Its pretty sad.) Anywho, at first thought and once I got the hang of it I realized why people like the T-9 feature. For us frerquent texters its a more efficient way of using this more efficient means of communication.

Or is it?

Let's play around with the T-9 feature and see what we get:

* #75283: The first word T-9 predicts you use with this combination - SLAVE. Not plate, not skate, not slate...SLAVE.

Who programed this phone? A plantation owner? The KKK? When in the world would you use the word slave more times than plate? What if you were texting someone you didn't know particularly well and tried to write "Do you want me to buy some plates for the party?" Talk about awkard.

* #9653: They predict here you will write WOLF. Instead of "Woke." Really T-9? Think about the people that text the most.

What is the more likely scenario...someone trying to say, "Yeah I woke up really late after getting hammered." Or, "Hey remember the Iron Wolf ride at Great America? That was great." In fact, when was the last time you heard somebody say "Wolf" for any reason?

T-9 can be efficient, but it can also be a pain in the ass. I like kicking it old school and going with your standard ABC text mode. Sure it takes a little bit longer, but at least I know i'm not going to accidentally write something like, "I had to get rid of this really dirty slave yesterday, it just wasn't worth the effort trying to clean it."

VERDICT:

OVERRATED