‘Taking kids to see Satan’ and ‘heading out for a riot’: Predictive texting
January 8th, 2011 - 2:40 pm ICT by ANILondon, Jan 8 (ANI): We all have ended up typing a text message that turned out to be something entirely different from what we meant to say, and that sometimes borders on bizarre behaviour - you could call it the downside of predictive texting.
For instance, a mother who was taking her kids out on Christmas sent a text that said, “Taking the kids to see Satan”, misspelling Santa, reports the Daily Mail.
Or the case of the friend, who asked another out for a quick riot (pint) or telling them about being stuck in a Steve (queue).
Predictive texting is a feature that modern mobile phones offer, in which a built-in dictionary enables them to predict what word a user wants from only a few key presses.
Scientists said the system trains young people to be fast but inaccurate.
Other studies show that predictive texting results in poor spelling power with many flummoxed by words such as questionnaire, accommodate and definitely.
But for most phone users, predictive texting is a source of convenience, and considerable amusement.
There is even a website dedicated to the embarrassment of ‘auto correct moments’. (ANI)
- Mobile phones can produce hilarious text - Jan 09, 2011
- Mobile text errors can nix relationships - Jan 01, 2012
- Internet words 'bloggable' and 'scareware' enter Oxford Dictionary - Feb 24, 2011
- Sexting is official, you may retweet it - Aug 18, 2011
- Now, iPhone app that instantly translates words as you watch - Dec 18, 2010
- Furgling, Dringle, Fumb - from Oxford Dictionary's 'non words' vault - Aug 07, 2010
- Now, Swype software that predicts words as you glide across your keypad - Jun 21, 2010
- Amazing iPhone application instantly translates words - Dec 19, 2010
- New Collins dictionary has text messaging guide too - Sep 09, 2009
- A billion SMSes sent in a single day in Beijing - Feb 08, 2011
- How to 'do the needful' in India with 'tashan' - Aug 13, 2010
- Windows Phone 7.5 launched in India - Oct 12, 2011
- Pakistan bans offensive words in texts - Nov 21, 2011
- Cell phone word 'World Cup' on sale in South Africa for whopping 20,00,000 rupees - Mar 25, 2011
- 'Separate' - the most commonly misspelt word in English language - Aug 07, 2010
Tags: bizarre behaviour, borders, daily mail, dictionary, downside, embarrassment, flummoxed, london jan, misspelling, mobile phones, phone users, pint, poor spelling, questionnaire, queue, riot, satan, scientists, spelling power, text message