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In Sites
Can you hear me NOW?
By Kathy Blankenbiller
Lititz Record Express
Published: Jul 10, 2008 12:19 PM EST
Lititz -
How many of you out there remember the "good old days" when people actually
had to wait until they got home to make a phone call? Or if they got good
and stuck, had to use the pay phone on the corner (which, of course, have
all but disappeared completely)? The "good old days" when I didn't have to
listen to people's phone conversations in restaurants, stores, doctors'
offices or on a bus, train or plane? What has happened to make everything
so "immediate" that people can't wait until they are home or at least in a
private location to make calls? And beyond that, what has happened to
common courtesy?
Latest statistics show that there are 137 million
cell phone users in the United States alone. There are no statistics,
however, indicating how many of those users are respectful when it comes to
receiving or making a cell phone call.
What would young people do
today if they actually had to take a phone call at home and not be able to
walk into another room with the phone? How would they handle it if they had
to go out and NOT have access to any communication device until they
returned home? Egads! And speaking of "communication devices," remember
when we first saw Captain Kirk pull out that little pocket communicator?
"How cool would THAT be?" we all said to ourselves. Well, it WAS cool
— in the beginning.
The first prototype of the Motorola mobile
phone (around 1973) was about the size of a man's size 10 shoe and weighed
a heck of a lot more. True, there were already two-way radios but THIS was
a real "mobile phone." AT&T's Bell Labs launched a trial of the first
commercial cellular network in Chicago in 1978. The rest, as they say, is
cell phone history.
And now, here we are today, with cell phones
everywhere you look. Everywhere. One other irritation: Have you experienced
the ringtone nightmare? There you are, eating lunch in a relatively posh
restaurant with a friend, and her cell phone rings; but wait! It ISN'T a
"ring," it's the theme from Jaws! Dig as she may, she simply cannot find
the teeny-tiny little cell phone that has found its way to the very bottom
of her enormously large purse. People are staring…sorry, make that
glaring…as you sit there red-faced.
Yes, the ringtone. Mine,
of course, is NOT a ringtone, I admit it. Mine is much more refined. Mine
is the voice of Mickey Mouse telling me that I have a call and not to miss
it. If I do not answer it by the third ring, he becomes…well, quite
persistent (Mickey is cute even when he's being pushy-love that
guy!)
But there's more to this…
Now we have cell
phones that access the Internet, play music and videos, access email, and
at this point, there's probably one that lets you talk with people on other
planets…
The one feature that completely eludes me is text
messaging. While it's less intrusive than a cell phone conversation, it IS
more confusing to me. It is a language made up of acronyms and (more or
less) shorthand characters. If I try to reconcile it, the closest I can
come is the abbreviations on those little hearts at Valentine's Day-"Will U
B Mine."
People my age, have you SEEN a text message? If not, here's
a very simple example:
The first person texts: Waz up? Wana com ova
2 hang out?
The recipient replies: Sig2rotb. Prw.
While the
first person's text is fairly clear (What's up? Want to come over to hang
out?), the recipient's reply is not (Sorry, I got to run off to bed.
Parents are watching).
Yeah, aha! I discovered a few that some of
you parents might like to know! If you see these, you just might want to
have a conversation with your child:
411 = Need information, spill
the beans, give me the inside scoop
420 = Time to smoke pot,
reference to marijuana
86 = Get rid of, toss
911 = Emergency,
respond immediately (use sparingly)
9 = Parent is
watching
P911 - Parent alert
POS - Parents over
shoulder
PAL - Parent listening
PAW - Parents are
watching
PIR - Parents in room
KPC - Keeping parents
clueless
99 = Parent is no longer watching, the coast is
clear
And here's a really scary one: LMRL - Let's meet in real
life
Did you know that there is honestly an entire text messaging
vocabulary? There IS! I wonder, when I read these, what is happening to the
brain. Can young people today really spell by themselves or do they depend
solely on Spell-Check? My point is that I wonder if texting-which to me is
basically writing in abbreviations-mixes up the person's mind when they sit
down to actually write in longhand. Or…do students still handwrite
anything? Perhaps they all use a computer to create all their essays, etc.
now? I'm serious, I really don't know. DOES the text vocabulary ever
dribble over into their schoolwork? DOES it mix up their standard grammar,
spelling and vocabulary? Just curious.
So, so much for the "good old
days," they're gone. Guess it's time to start learning to use some of these
new-fangled gizmos, eh? All I can say to that is: GB/GL/HF.
In
Sites
http://www.prleap.com/pr/83692/ - July is National Cell Phone
Courtesy Month -
According to Jacqueline Whitmore, one of the
nation's foremost experts on etiquette and protocol, wireless phone users
can take these steps to avoid offending others.
http://www.netlingo.com/ - NetLingo -
The Internet Dictionary - Thousands of definitions that explain the online
world of business, technology, and communication, including the largest
collection of Internet acronyms and text messaging
shorthand.
Kathy Blankenbiller is a columnist and
correspondent for the Lititz Record Express. Her In Sites column appears
weekly, and the Web sites presented here are examples of some of the
choices available on the Internet that pertain to her topic, and they are
not the only ones available. These sites and their services are not
necessarily endorsed by the Record Express. Kathy's e-mail address is
kblank@ptd.net.
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