Dear LPG,

When I get up each morning, I reach for my glasses first thing in order to get a clear perspective on the day, but my son tells me that his first thought is to check his mobile phone. I found a seven-year-old internet article which tells that, back in 2014, 70% of us in the UK reached for our mobile phones each morning so that they can check their texts, WhatsApp messages and emails before even getting out of bed.  I wonder just how much that figure has risen since that article was written?

The young are often accused of picking up their mobile phones too often but the real question is, do we oldies do it enough? 

I think that even the older members of the British population have all learned a lot more about mobile phones over the past year and I also know that quite a few of my friends, who before the words lockdown and coronavirus found their way into our vocabulary, would not have even entertained the notion of owning a mobile phone, have had to change their minds.  Necessity has taught us a lot more about using these new electronic companions and, now that so many more of us have phones that allow us to text and WhatsApp the people who live around the corner but who we have not been able to see for over a year, we are very slowly learning the secrets of sending messages in that way. 

Let’s forget all the other things that mobile phones can help us to do for a moment and get down to basics.  I am talking about communication; after all that is what we oldies remember Sir Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone invention for leaving us with.

Today is National Text your Ex Day, which is most probably neither here nor there at our time of life but, unless you want your friends to become part of your ‘Ex’ network, can I ask that we oldies remember the importance of checking what other people have texted to us.  Not first thing in the morning but a couple of times a week at least.  Working out how to read and write in this way can be as challenging as your original school experience.  It can be quite fiddly but there is no need to go at it with lightning fingers and if yours are a little too fat for the silly little squares with the letters in, a Touch Screen Stylus pen might be the answer (►►►) once you have mastered how

The NHS send messages by text, once you give them a mobile phone number and I have to admit that I nearly missed the one about my second Covid-19 Jab because I never checked the phone. Have you ever wondered why one of your friends has not called in a while?  

Let’s forget about the ‘Ex’ aspect of this national celebration while I just remind my fellow readers that checking the texts that are written to you a couple of times a week, as well as learning how to write the odd text yourself is not a bad thing. 

HC, Crofton Park.

HC shares some basic instructions about sending and receiving texts...

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… and some additional information.

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