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 …
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
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")
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.
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.
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
"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
"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.
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....
"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! )
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