Curse of the text gaffes
If you have ever accidentally messaged something romantic — or worse — to a parent, an insult to your boss or inadvertently ended a relationship via text messaging, you are not alone.
The internet is now awash with entire websites dedicated to our text messaging mishaps, courtesy of auto-correct, or, to use its other name, predictive text — that seemingly helpful but sometimes malign feature of modern mobile phones.
The leader in pooling these text gaffes is website Damn You Autocorrect!, though Autocorrect Fail and Damn Autocorrect also make fun reading. The hits on the sites have gone stratospheric since links to them have been extensively shared across social networking sites, with the funniest gaffes going viral.
Most of the sites’ content makes for a light-hearted lunchtime giggle but occasionally tragedy strikes. Auto-correct is a feature of modern smartphone software that simply corrects spelling errors, much like the spellcheck feature on Microsoft Word, but in the process it also guesses what you were trying to text — and can “correct” without you noticing. You might well have told a friend you were “honking” of them, when what you were actually doing was “thinking” of them.
While it is a useful smartphone feature, especially when you consider the size of the touch-screen keyboards in comparison with most people’s fingers, not to mention dexterity levels, it can also give rise to a variety of uncomfortable, if not cringeworthy, situations.
I for one have texted my boss the following after an argument about a pay rise: Me: “Piece of s**t!” — this should have read “Peace of sorts”. My boss: “Should I take that as your resignation?” Luckily, I am still employed.
While we may marvel at modern technology’s ability to make life simpler, something as seemingly harmless as a text message can now wreak havoc in our personal and professional lives. Never was this more apparent than in a high school in Georgia, US, earlier this year.
A student had intended to write “Gunna be at West Hall today”. Unfortunately, autocorrect changed the first word to “Gunman”. Once the police were alerted, West Hall High School was put on lock-down until the situation was resolved.
It is not known what phone the student was using but Apple iPhones seemto be the most common culprits, according to the screen-grabbed gaffes on these sites.
While some gaffes uploaded may have had a little creative input from users looking to share a laugh, if you are not planning on a divorce, or making your parents privy to your intimate night life, then do not rely too heavily on your phone to speak for you.
