Dear LPG, 

Like so many of us older people, I learned a lot about what you can do with a mobile phone when being stuck at home gave me little else to concentrate on, and while I would still class myself as a novice, since the pandemic I have learned a little about a few things you can do other than make a telephone call with one. 

Though there is nothing better than talking with my friends, I have learned about the advantages of being able to send a short message when I have other things that I need to do.

When I really need to keep my focus on my schedule, if I pick up the phone to any of my friends, even though I always start the conversation with that age-old statement, ‘I’m not going to be on the phone for very long… this is just a quick call…’, I just know that most of the friends I would want to convey a very short message to would find it impossible to take that statement on board. 

 I would be highly unlikely to get the point of my call across for at least half an hour while we digress in order to catch up and share the events that have transpired in our respective lives since the last time we talked; compare our latest aches, pains and ailments; talked about mutual friends and the difficulties they are experiencing at the moment and comment on the local and national news of the day before we ever even got anywhere near the original point of the call (if I remember to deliver it before I put the phone down).

If you can master the art of texting, you can save so much time and get the point across before you forget it.   There is also the advantage that if you remember at 3 o’clock in the morning, in theory, you can deliver the message before you forget without any anti-social repercussions (provided the receiver of your message turns off the notification ‘ping' on their phone at night). 

I wonder if any of my age-contemporaries, who dare to keep up with the kids in this way, have the same frustrations as me. I had the advantage of being a touch typist.  Back in the day, I could shut my eyes and remember which letter was where on a qwerty keyboard but that is not a lot of help when it comes to texting. 

I see the young children’s thumbs doing double time, while I hold the phone in one hand and slowly aim my index finger with the other.  I think I have a key-missing rate of at least one in 10 characters.  My grandchildren call me the ‘keypad missing queen’, although I have learned to be an expert when it comes to using the delete button.

However, there is an alternative.  I have more recently learned how to use the little microphone button that allows you to dictate while your smartphone becomes your personal audio typist.  The problem with that is that you have to learn to speak really clearly and slowly or else your ‘speech-to-text’ message can have a whole new meaning by the time it reaches the other end of your intended target.

It is a case of learning to talk really slowly or learning to check and edit everything you say before you send it and, of course, there is no point in writing them unless you take a little time to read the answers…

OT, Forest Hill