Tisc (this Is So Cool)

The only problem I ever had in Mrs. Cassidy’s typing class was the time I had a horrible cold and sneezed so hard I bounced my head off the typewriter. I guess you could say I took to typing like the proverbial duck takes to water, which makes it hard to understand why I have such a hard time text messaging.

If you spend time with teenagers, you know that most of them are very attached to their cell phones. Not long ago, I substituted for a teacher at our local high school and learned that my twins aren’t the only ones with fast-moving fingers. Some students can text with their cell phones beneath their desk while looking you straight in the eye. If one of them hadn’t accidentally dropped their phone, I never would have figured out what they were up to.

There have been occasions when I’ve tried to text message my boys. For someone who can type more than 60 words a minute, I find it extremely frustrating that I can’t text more than two or three words in the same length of time. For one thing, I can’t see the letters on the keys unless I have my glasses on and the light is sufficient. And when I can see, I still don’t know how to use the keys to insert punctuation or capitalization. Not that those things matter to teens when it comes to texting anyway.

Last week one of my sons taught me how to put my cell phone on speaker phone and how to make it vibrate. That’s pretty cool, except the other day I had the phone in my lap while driving and forgot it was there. When it started vibrating I nearly jumped out of my skin.

After I learn to text faster I’m going to try out my nephew’s Guitar Hero. For those of you who may not know what I’m talking about, it’s a video game that involves technology, music, and imagination. The object is to mimic the chords to songs as closely as possible. You can choose your music from an array of famous bands. I think I’ll start with the Stones. If Mick Jagger can still rock and roll, so can I.