back to article Texting makes kids faster and dumber

Predictive text is making kids lazy and inaccurate and the collapse of civilisation can only be prevented by bringing back multi tap. The idea that using predictive text is making kids more impulsive and less patient is apparently borne out by a study from Professor Michael Abramson of Monash University, Melbourne, Australia …

COMMENTS

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  1. Citizen Kaned
    WTF?

    odd....

    to use predictive on many phones you need to know how to spell. i have found many of the younger generation dont use predictive as they cant spell for toffee. they tend to use old style input to spell phonetically

  2. Richard 81

    Pah!

    Slide out QWERTY keyboards on every phone then!

  3. Lionel Baden
    Headmaster

    lol v fun

    wonder if he has a doctorate too ???

  4. Skeptic Al
    Thumb Down

    Spelling?

    I'm not sure about the validity of the study. I've seen the way my kids txts, and the way their friends txt and I do not think a single one of them use T9. With T9 their is a fair chance of a legible paragraph consisting of words and punctuation. The way kids txt is little more than some shorthand grunt.

    Wiv txt lik dis hu neds T9

  5. Andy Burgess
    WTF?

    It seems to me...

    It seems to me that predictive texting did a lot for bringing spelling back to young people. Isn't it better that we have predictive text than "c u l8r" type messages?

  6. Stephen McLeod Blythe
    Coat

    fast?

    hey I got teh frst poast!

    [sic]

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't forget Powerpoint

    It seems inevitable that texting and Powerpoint shall ultimately validate and absolve Private Frazer and his theory that "we're all doomed":

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00lv28b/Word_of_Mouth_04_08_2009/

  8. Number6

    Confused

    T9 could never predict what I wanted to type so I disabled it. However, last phone upgrade I got one with a Qwerty keyboard which is far better.

  9. Dr. Mouse

    hmm...

    4086825590247331****

    Ooops, I meant to say "I totally agree!" :)

    I don't know many kids who actually use predictive text messaging, purely because they cannot spell. I use it all the time myself, although I wish I could find a way to make it use "mum" as the first word for 686 insteat of "nun" (The number of times my texts have started with "Hi nun")

  10. Bod

    bring back text adventure games

    I learnt a lot about spelling and grammar from the old text adventure games. You were forced to think about verbs and nouns, stringing sentences together. The later more advanced ones got into more complex grammar.

    If I'd learnt from texting I'd be as thick as many of today's youth I think.

    I'd agree to that many kids probably don't use T9 anyway. T9 isn't corrective, it's just predictive. It won't correct your spelling if you hit the wrong key in many handsets and you need to know how to spell the word in the first place. Correcting the spelling when it doesn't recognise it takes longer, so kids likely resort to the simple ugly text speak.

  11. nick perry

    BFD!

    i use txt & imo tbh i c no probz

  12. Nate Phillips
    FAIL

    @Skeptic Al

    Sir, you better proofread your own posts before complaining garbage coming from others.

    "Txt?" Can't criticize the kiddies if you do it yourself.

    Also, the word you were looking for was "there" not "their."

  13. Stevie

    Bah!

    But what about the findings in the landmark doctorate thesis reported upon yesterday, probably titled something like "txtng ds so nt mk u dum!"?

    Definitive work must be funded for this important work so we can know whether or not the Chav Index should replace the long-standing yet controversial Inteligence Quotient.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    T9 doesn't always work...

    I tried sending a dirty message to my girlfriend, and she called me back and asked why I wanted to kick her puppy.

  15. Subban
    Unhappy

    this si what SMS has given us....

    http://imgur.com/MFEQB.jpg

    .... and it makes me want to cry everytime I encounter it on an IM, email or blog.

  16. Martin 6 Silver badge

    Good value for money research

    One test, multiple conclusions, one price.

    Kids are getting thicker, kids have mobiles phones =

    Microwave radiation causes thick kids.

    Texting causes thick kids

    Looking at LCD screens causes thick kids

    Charging li-ion batteries causes thick kids

    Exposure to mobile phone company's small print causes thick kids

  17. Bad Beaver
    WTF?

    Shoot it!

    Predictive text raped my dog and stole my thunder!

    Whatever. I never took to T9. Too much hassle. It's one of the reasons I am partial about the iPhone, too. Fixing wrong interpretations is much more work then digging in proper text with a keyboard or multiklick.

  18. McToo
    Coffee/keyboard

    @AC 15:44 GMT

    The icon says it! Bravo sir.

  19. James O'Brien
    FAIL

    @Skeptic Al and @Nate Phillips

    "Wiv txt lik dis hu neds T9"

    ROFL Keyboard sir TY

    Nate -

    Im pretty sure he had the right word. "There" is as in OVER THERE, "Their" is possessive. Think before you type next time. As for his use of the word txt, why not complain to whoever invented 8.3 file names.

    Notepad = .txt file and everyone just about knows what that is.

    Images = .jpg and again just about everyone knows what that is.

    Txt = Do I really need to continue right now?

    So the FAIL goes to you sir.

    ttfn

  20. Nexox Enigma

    Oh noes...

    I hope tab completion doesn't lead to the same effect! All I do is type the beginning of a command and bash figured out the rest!

    Obviously we should all go back to sh, without the luxuries added by Gnu readline.

  21. Sarah Baucom
    FAIL

    @ James O'Obrien

    You might be pretty sure "their" was the correct usage, but I'm 100% sure it's not the correct usage in that sentence. The word was as in "over there," not a possessive.

    "Their is a fair chance"

    Think before you correct someone correcting someone next time.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    @ @Skeptic Al and @Nate Phillips #

    "Im pretty sure he had the right word. "There" is as in OVER THERE, "Their" is possessive. Think before you type next time."

    Err, no James, the phrase used originally by Skeptic Al was "With T9 their is a fair chance of a legible paragraph consisting of words and punctuation.", consequently Nate's correction was perfectly in order.

    Can I suggest you think before you type next time?

    The FAIL goes to you sir.

  23. FinbarReilly
    WTF?

    Can a scientific study showing that kids should get off lawns be far behind?

    It just seems like another variation of an old man saying how his youth was better. A faster response being more incorrect more often doesn't sound like stupidity; it sounds like someone who needs to slow down, and that's all. You tell people that at work, and it doesn't mean that the person is any less intelligent than you are. Yeesh....all of the skills kids are expected to master compared to the ones he had to when he was younger, and you expect them to get everything right every time? Good luck....

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Just fix that for you there....

    "borne out by a study from Professor Wotnot ( Head of The Huge Research Grant Justification Board) of Monash University, Melbourne, Australia,"

    Some old dingbat got up one morning and needed something to do, so he got his free money and released something that will play into the hands of the Daily Mail reader types, who wish to blame society's problems on drunken, over-sexed, teenage hoodies!

    When I was at school all be got from teachers was, "Using these new fangled Sinclair and Commodore micro computers will make you fat, lazy and you will never a get a job other than selling them on to other idiots!"

    Well the fat, lazy bit came to be, but selling them no? Chained 24/7 to database servers by pager and mobile phone, yes!!!

    ( A beer - after a week of on-call I seriously need one! )

  25. James O'Brien
    FAIL

    DOH!!!

    "and the way their friends txt and I do not think a single one of them use T9."

    That was the sentence I saw, for some reason I didn't see the other 'their' the second and third time I read what he wrote.

    Yep FAIL does goto me for not having eyesight checked ;-/

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