Age and Technology

Depends on the make. My old Sony Ericsson would only use the letters you had typed. My nasty new Samsung makes up words as it goes along.

G

You're sounding more like me everyday, Robbie.

G

I'm actually quite grateful that we didn't have mobile phones (or Playstations or the Internet) when I was a kid. I feel rather sorry for today's youth who I never see playing football in the street like we did...

Amen to that Hefty. It's not helped by the 'stranger danger' set of paranoias either on the part of the parents. And the kids who do buck the trend and play in the street, are treated with intolerance and suspicion by their elders.

I *hate* predictive text!
Relatives visited yesterday. Shortly before their ETA I sent a short "whereareyou" message. Bro-in-law (navigating replies - without taking eyes off the road - "In troyarieie". He meant "In trowbridge". He said to his daughter - driving - "Geoff will figure it out".

Oh, and for George L:
My old Sony Ericsson (4 year old K510i)is also my current phone. It takes my key input, but needs some work with the 4-way button to get the letters to show what I mean. The big thing is that it does what I want otherwise.

But reading Thoramay's posts about forgetting:
Phone talks (hands free) to the car (Bluetooth). Before retirement, I would call my wife when I left the campus - and did not think about the process of making the call. A few weeks back, I picked up the car after a service, went to call home to give an ETA, and could not remember how to scroll through the Address List. ( You do it with the scroll-wheel, stoopid). Had to sit in the car and RTFM to figure it out, when I got home of course.
Almost make you yearn for the days when ASA 400, and settings of f5.6 and 1/250 would mean that you got a quick shot without fiddling with the controls - check the meter for the second shot if there was time.
Now it is more a case of Shake Reduction fighting a losing battle with the instability caused by MS - just bought a Monopod!
Geoff

I have to have predictive text turned off since it isn't bi-lingual. I hate it any way but when texting in two different languages (often in the same message :blush it is impossible to use.

I have an ancient Nokia phone. It phones, it texts, and it has bluetooth for when I drive the Prius. I don't need anything more than that. I hardly use the thing anyway.
My husband insisted I have one, in case I fall over and break a leg or something while out in the woods with the dogs. I pointed out I had managed for a long time without such a device but he got me one anyway. I hate mobile phones. It is the first thing I turn off when we go on holiday - his too, or he gets work related calls all the time.

I am a believer in having a mobile phone - but could never get my husband to keep his switched on !!

He was up in Inverness the day I tripped over the dog and dislocated my left elbow - and I tried to get him to tell him what I'd done with the dog when going off in the ambulance - but his phone was off

Our phones were not very clever - calls and texts , we didn't even have bluetooth then but could I get him to leave the darn thing switched on ??

MEN !!!

Luckily the time I dislocated my elbow my husband was right next to me. It happened when I fell off a bike on Vlieland when we went there to celebrate his 60th with the family.

Extremely painful as I recall, the elbow, not his birthday. It was relocated by the local doctor (come vet) after giving me some great knock out drugs. Luckily he was able to do it or it would have been the end of the weekend away and a trip back to the mainland to hospital.
It took a lot of physiotherapy afterwards to get it approaching straight again. Still hurts like h when rain is due.

Elbows are a problem - I had 48 hours as an inpatient after mine was reduced !!

Oh and a visit from my husband at 11pm the day it was done - after he got home and found the house empty and the dog wanting out of the sitting room

I had no physio afterwards - was told by the consultant what I was to achieve after each visit and everything was done by me - very cautiously and slowly . After 6 months I was able to relax a bit and realise that recovery was good - and the fears of having to 'fix' the joint were unfounded - everything was working again . I even started to drive ponies again

And even that episode didn't get my husband to leave his phone on when away from home

Predictive texting saves me a lot of time compared to standard spelling. But then I have a Nokia - the phone that makes any other brand look clumsy

Unfortunately, it is no longer the case with state education in Glasgow. The standard is now truly appalling. Fortunately we can afford to opt out.

I do note that the current four Chancellors of our local universities all went to the same school as me. A school, despite its Victorian origins, was what Tony Blair might have described as 'an inner city science academy'. Sadly closed due to Labour Party dogma in 1977.

Allan Glens by any chance ?

I'm not sure whether to be concerned or not...