What is it about the text messages and emails sent by older people that make me feel like I’m having a stroke?
Maybe they’re used to various shortcuts in their writing that they picked up before autocorrect became common, but these habits are too idiosyncratic for autocorrect to handle properly. However, that doesn’t explain the emails I’ve had to decipher that were typed on desktop keyboards. Has anyone else younger than 45 or so felt similarly frustrated with geriatrics’ messages?
“please give John my cell # so that he can send or re-send the travel info. He sent it when I was at urgent care house but it has disappeared—thanks”
This is a you problem. The sender communicated fine, they don’t have time to write you a formatted request like:
Hi, CrimeDad. I am in the urgent care facility having a severe medical problem and did not receive the travel information John sent. Could you please give him this cell phone number so he can send it to me? Thanks.
because they were in fucking urgent care.
@RBWells @asklemmy It seems like it’s a you-and-me problem since we both misinterpreted the message similarly lol.
“Lo, as I lay upon my sickbed, it came to my mind that Old John had not told me of his travel plans ere I fell sick. My trusted employee, will you go to him and ask of his plans, then send them forthwith unto my device, that I may learn of them before I die?”
@RBWells @asklemmy Maybe I am missing the joke, but you understand that no one was sick, right? There weren’t even any travel plans.
I’m with you on this one then. What were they asking you to do?
@RBWells @asklemmy I had a party at my house and both my mom and my friend, John, came over. They had a conversation in which he told her about a good website for shopping for airline tickets and he emailed her the link. Subsequently, she couldn’t find the email, prompting her to ask me via the message I quoted. I didn’t know they had that conversation and it seemed like my mom was saying she had actually gone to urgent care.
If it’s your mom, then just reply “what?” and she will read what she wrote and figure out it’s not making sense then. I don’t know what autocorrect would make “urgent care house” out of “party at your house” but T9 predictive text once decided I wanted to tell my kids I was at the “slave ring” instead of the “skate rink”. Like of all the ways it could misinterpret “skate” - plate, crate, scale, it landed on slave.
The sender wanted the recipient to give their mobile number to John.