Texting has taken the ability of instant messaging to your handheld device. But what did we do before instant messaging? I suppose the internet brought email, then chat rooms, then instant messaging. Before the internet, people wrote letters or notes to communicate with the written word. prior to mail service, they left notes at common areas or asked friends to deliver them.
The societal need for communication persists. Texting keyboards have changed over time. I currently use Swype, which takes predictive texting to a new level. Rather than the phone interpreting your individual keystrokes, it now predicts your words based on a combination of letters you slide over with your fingertip and letters you pause on.
Not only has texting changed the motor skills necessary for written communication, it has also changed our language, verbal and written. Ideas are communicated in a compact way, creating a new level of text-slang. Most educators have felt this impact as students seem interested in using the new text lingo in their academic writing.
Your comment regarding predictive texting reminded me that while it may yet be awhile before we have true AI, thinking machines. Programming has come a long way. A computer will only do what it is programmed to do, but psuedo-AI capabilities are clearly a reality. With the speed and sophistication of today's software, it is hard to tell the difference between psuedo-AI and true Artificial Intelligence.
ReplyDeleteKimberly, Great point! I didn't even realize the AI - predictive text connection!
ReplyDelete