Can you remember the first text you ever sent?
No, I can't either. Texts are as routine to me as putting on my shoes before I go out. But not for my Dad. He's had a mobile for a couple of years, but he's always refused to bother with texting. He couldn't see the point. "Why write a text when you can call someone?", he'd say. I'd tell him it's not one or the other. And that was that. Until Christmas, when he asked me to give him a lesson.
I've kept his first text. It says 'lhello mm' (the M is for Malcolm and the typos are from his antique Nokia phone).
Here's a (complete) anthology of my dad's texts this year:
'Hi rob frome filey love mum dad'
'Hi rob z
yes thanks dad'
'hi rob ihave a great time indenamrk mum dad'.
'Phonf me dad'
I like the way you can hear the effort that's gone into every word - even every character (predictive text is not for him). And the way the texts are saved for important moments - the trip to Filey and Denmark - it's like what we used to do with 35mm photos that came in 24 or 36 rolls. Every word counts. I was talking to Molly about this. Hans, her sort of adopted grandpa (it's a long story) has been married for sixty years, and every day he's typed his wife Kathe a short message. He gave Molly this one when she went to see him last year. (If your German's rusty, that last line says: then we'll be alone again.) Spare, a bit sad, but not a word wasted.
Now before you think I'm hankering for a nostalgic time of letters written in quills, before emoticons and LOL acronyms took over, I'm not. I like the fact that things are faster and that they work. I like that we write emails more like we speak (and we don't put on a 'letter writing voice' when we write them). I like the constraint of writing tweets in 140 characters.
We’re actually writing more than we ever used to. Without realising it, we're all Samuel Pepys now. But we keep our diaries in texts, status updates and 140 characters. It’s just a shame that we don't think about them more. Or that we fritter words away in emails arranging meetings and 'Sorry I'm late' texts. And then we move on to the next thing.
There’s not going to be time to turn every email into a piece of art before you press ‘send’. But here are two simple ways to make your words (and every character) count.
One: spend five minutes every day for one week writing down something that matters – to you or someone you love. And whatever you do, don’t put on a letter writing voice or use flowery language (Hans’ notes don’t).
Two: have a look at your inbox and your sent items. The things you wrote last week, last year. Or years ago. It's like rifling through a shoebox of mementoes. You might be surprised at what you find (and at what you didn't notice at the time).
Rob and Molly are from We All Need Words. They help companies make their words count too. Their next weekend workshop will be running on Saturday 9th October. For more information click here.
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