Wishing I Was All Thumbs

When I was a kid, we didn’t have cellphones; heck, we didn’t have backpacks – well, there were backpacks but we didn’t use them for books. They were mainly used for camping (as I remember). We carried our books in the crook of our arm.

I often marvel at the things we didn’t have: in addition to no cellphones, we didn’t have CDs, VCRs, ATMs, cable, streaming services and delivery service (except for pizza) (to name a few).

I think that’s why I’m so astounded when seeing little kids using cellphones to get to a gaming screen and even adults using all their fingers (known as touch typing) when sending a text. I usually use just a single digit on my dominant (right) hand.

Last week I heard that kids don’t even need to see their phones when texting; they intuitively know what buttons to push in order to create and send a message. Of course, I am a stickler for correct spelling – even when texting – so perhaps touch typing wouldn’t work for me.

However, there is an AI (artificial intelligence) tutorial for people like me who are “touch typing challenged.” Just feed “Texting using all fingers” in the search bar of your search engine and up comes AI instructions on how to achieve this phenomenon.

Of course, texting as a primary means of communication has its drawbacks. While it may be convenient to send a text to someone rather than giving them a call and going through the chit chat of “Hi, how are you? What did you do this weekend?” the fact is that many kids today don’t even know how to have a meaningful conversation – either with adults or with each other. For example, how many times have you seen a gaggle of girls quietly texting – sometimes each other! – rather than interacting?

I don’t know about you but when I was a teenager, there was so much drama in living day-to-day. I remember talking to my girlfriends ad nauseam about how someone looked at me, what I (or someone else) wore,  who I liked, who she liked, etc. I can’t imagine trying to relay that information in a text. Sensitive and/or tricky topics deserve a phone call or in-person meeting, don’t you think? I mean, emojis can only relay so much.

And speaking of emojis, did you know there was an entire “secret library” of emoji meanings? Don’t even get me started…

So in order not to be totally old fashioned, I guess I need to bring up those AI instructions on how to “touch type.”