Have you ever text messaged the wrong person? Ever heard of "textual harassment" or "texting while intoxicated"? If not, read on. You'll get a kick out of this.
I first wanted to write an article only about text messaging the wrong person after learning I am not the only person having text messaged the wrong person. I'll get to that. However this is a topic that goes beyond this one blunder. So let's explore...
ACCIDENTLY CALLING THE WRONG PERSON
For me it all started when I acquired my first PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) phone. These phones have large touch screens and locking software is frankly a pain in most cases. Inevitably the phone would dial back in error anyone I was on the phone with last. This happened from time to time and usually it was my wife. WAS. LOL.
Nooooo! I never spoke to anyone I shouldn't be talking to, don't go assuming too much. The only story there is that I was annoyed by my phone. There is this one time when I was out to lunch with a friend from high-school, and old band buddy. We were catching up at nice sit down restaurant. My phone called my wife while it was on the table! Later she told me, "You idiot, you left a 20 minute voice mail at my office!" You'd think the joke ends there. She went on because she was angry, not pissed, but angry. Yes ladies and gentlemen my wife heard me speak things she should not have heard. And no I didn't speak ill of her. I recall telling my friend that my wife didn't know me. We were talking about how she angrily told me once she didn't want to know about my past life before her and I had to put all my photos of my life before meeting her in a crate and put a padlock on it. I'm not kidding. So at lunch I'm saying..."There is a side of me my wife will never know and I resent that." The fall out at home was hard core. I won't detail it, you can imagine what a woman does when she is angry and decide for yourself what happened.
Couple that incident with the phone calling her back while in my pocket a number of other times and you get annoyed with your phone and yourself.
And I'm vindicated again here as I've looked it up and found people actually do worse things such as dial drunk. Just read The New Social Etiquette: Friends Don't Let Friends Dial Drunk.
In the end, I have had to actually remove people from my PDA phone completely to insure my phone doesn't dial them.
ACCIDENTLY TEXT MESSAGING OR REPLYING TO THE WRONG PERSON
Now you know where it all started for me, then it evolved. If you are like me, I now have a love hate relationship with my PDA phone. Because next came text messaging. Have you ever replied to or just simply sent a text message to the wrong person? I have plenty but I've gotten that under control over time. LOL
But what made me write this article today was that while watching Neil Patrick Harris (actor plays Barney - How I met your mother) co host a show he is chatting up about his Iphone and trading stories. Wouldn't you know it, he brings this very subject up. Apparently Mac Iphones make it easy to text the wrong people. Others have their own embarrassing moments to share here.
Bam! I'm exonerated of embarrassment! I'm not the only one! He tells a couple cute stories about how he's both replied to and simply sent text messages to the wrong person.
So how does this happen to completely rational, sane, technically savvy and educated men? (Or women! LOL) ?
Here are a couple discussion boards discussions on the topic:
1. Ex-wife and ex-husband child custody wrangle (ironic but no connection to me) ... oh and solution to anyone a victim of this nonsense... change your phone cell phone number and only allow them to call your home. Duh.
2. Various people discussing mistakes and text messaging tactics (how to worm out of mistakes)
3. Woman accidently text messages state trooper for pot (thought it was her dealer) LOL
Well, for me it's the fact it's a PDA phone. Not a phone. With a PDA phone you have a call history listed on the touch screen. A quarter or dime, car key etc.. can touch the screen and initiate the call if your phone is in your pocket. Gremlins too, don't forget them. Because something dialed my wife while my phone was lying innocuously on my table that day at lunch! :)
Then there is the user initiated blunder. The dumb mistake you are at fault for an no one else… These happen when you are emotional I suppose, that happens mostly when you are drunk. J This is called, texting while intoxicated or being Intexticated ( or intexitcated), LOL. I don’t drink so I text messages for general communication only. Otherwise I don’t chat people up in text.
Of course then there is simply just the act of text messaging itself that can be an embarrassment. Just this last week on February 12, 2008 a woman was issued a restraining order for sending and ex boyfriend 10,000 text messages in two months. Frankly, I don’t see a problem with this. Isn’t this the average number of text messages girlfriends send a guy anyway? <grin> I've gone as far as to change my phone number on my PDA to stop an ex from doing the same, I think this guy could have done the same. I got a great phone number out of the deal! LOL
I was even more relieved to find a funny public service video on YouTube.com about safe texting. :)
Only in one case did I find that a guy actually texted the wrong person that he did NOT know and eventually married her.
HOW DOES ACCIDENTAL TEXT MESSAGING HAPPEN?
As you see there are lot of stories of it happening. I think it has to do with the devices mainly. For me, I've found that hitting reply to the last person that text messaged me is easier than typing a full number again. But saving a few steps in the process and being rushed in the car, out on the paintball field, or walking through a store or where ever I may be busy doing something I shouldn't be distracted can lead to embarrassment. On my PDA screen I see a list of recent text messages and have to select the person I want to reply to. I've though I selected the last person, when in fact I selected a nearby sender. I've also simply just hit reply to my last sender thinking that I was text messaging them last, when it was someone else. That one is user error. Guilty here. :)
Then there are people that just are not familiar with new technology, read: These Newfangled Contraptions.
Here is one more video. It's short and is cute, and actually makes another big point about text messaging mistakes. That is what you write doesn't express your emotions. Just watch it. You'll learn what you already know. :)
No one is immune to text messaging mistakes. We all have embarrassing moments in life and I think text messaging will become a big cause of life’s embarrassing moments as the twenty-first century rolls on.
