Text messaging Archives - Diane Hamilton

Texting Offers Latest Marketing Opportunity

As mobile phones have taken over the way people communicate, it is a natural progression for texting to become a marketing opportunity. In the Wall Street Journal article Teen Stores Try Texts as Gr8 Nu Way to Reach Out, author Christina Binkley explained, “Like many parents who have turned to texting to reach their teens, some youth-oriented fashion brands like Charlotte Russe, Claire’s Boutique and Vans are finding that young people are most accessible by text.”

Texting now can include more rich content, pictures and video. Marketers can send shopping passes, discounts, and offers. Rather than merely being a vehicle for chat, texting now offers a way to get customers to opt in and avoid illegal lists or spam. Customers can selectively pick who they would like to receive offers from, which leads to a higher chance of the sales message being received. The article stated, “People are five times more likely to open a text than an email. Five billion people text on mobile phones, while about two billion people use the Internet.”

This new form of communication has increased the speed of receiving offers and acting upon them. There is immediacy due to the ability to send messages that state things like “get 10% off if purchased within the next 3 hours.”

One of the hardest parts is to get people to opt in to receive the texts. Retails often post signs to ask customers to opt in by texting short codes. For more information, check out Top Links Explaining SMS and Short Codes.

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Multi-Tasking and Time Management: Are We Really Attention-Switching?

via google.com

Short of sleeping while ironing, I am constantly doing more than one thing at a time. After giving a speech to a local career group, a man from the audience came up to me and said that “there is no such thing as multi-tasking.” This is an interesting thing to debate. This topic became popular a few years ago when scientists were doing a lot of studies on multi-tasking.

Paul M. Jones claims that the many things we call multi-tasking are actually attention-switching. According to Jones, “You cannot perform two or more non-trivial tasks at the same time; at best, you pay attention to one and mostly ignore the other, then you switch your attention to the other and dismiss the first one temporarily, and then you switch your attention back to the first again. This is far less effective than completing the first task, then moving on to the second task, because of the time and mental effort it takes to switch between tasks.”

Some of what people are referring to when they say science has proven that multi-tasking is a myth is due to the results of several studies. One of those studies was completed by Neuroscientist, Daniel Weissman, who studied subjects’ brains as they performed different tasks. For more information on these brain studies, check out NPR’S report by clicking here.

I’ve read some of the literature. Perhaps the wording multi-tasking is the problem. I’m happy to use the term attention-switching. However, for me, if I waited until I completed one thing to start something else, I would be missing a lot of opportunities to fill in some gaps. I often have several programs open on my computer. As I am working in one program, waiting for the page to refresh or for something to calculate on screen, I can switch to another program and be working on something else. If I simply sat and waited for my computer to finish thinking, I’d be doing a lot of staring at my computer’s hourglass. Saying that multi-tasking is a myth and calling this act attention-switching is fine. However, I do not agree, at least for me, that tasks must be completed in entirety before moving onto something else.

In a job where I “dialed for dollars”, I would type my sales call notes as I spoke to my customers over the phone. This helped me to not forget the most important parts of the conversation. It also allowed me to have at least an hour more phone productivity time as compared to other employees that waited until they got off the phone to write their notes.

Whether you want to refer to doing more than one thing at a time as multi-tasking or attention-switching, there is a lot of wasted time out there that I believe more people should be looking for in order to become more efficient. If you have time management issues, I would suggest looking for things that you can do simultaneously as in my example of the call notes. Some things can be combined to make your day more productive.

Can Texting Damage Writing Skills?

image via ocbiz.ocregister.com

I often talk to my students about whether they feel texting has caused people to have more difficulties with their writing skills. I personally see a lot of first-year students who abbreviate quite a bit, lack punctuation skills and don’t write in complete sentences.

Young and younger children are receiving cell phones. It may make parents feel safer knowing they can reach their children. Tweens are learning to type in text abbreviations which may affect their ability to write well. WJS.com reported “The average 13- to 17-year-old sends and receives 3,339 texts a month—more than 100 per day, according to the Nielsen Co., the media research firm. Adults are catching up. People from ages 45 to 54 sent and received 323 texts a month in the second quarter of 2010, up 75% from a year ago.”

Eudopia.org recently posted a survey asking the following question to see if text messaging is harming students’ writing skills: “IYO txtng = NME or NBD?” If you have no idea what that means . . . Translation: “In your opinion, is text messaging the enemy, or no big deal?”

PiercePioneer.com asked, Mike Darcher, English instructor for 20 years if he felt texting was hurting our students’ writing ability. He said he could not make the connection of bad texting habits being carried over into student’s writing. “In terms of writing skills, there is no way of measuring its impact,” Darcher said.

TimesDaily reported the results of a report of a study from Pew Internet and American Life Project. “The study was prompted in large part because of growing concerns over how text-based electronic communications affect the writing ability of students who are immersed in electronic media. Out of 700 youth aged 12-17 who participated in the phone survey, 60 percent say they don’t consider electronic communications – e-mail, instant messaging, mobile text – to be writing in the formal sense; 63 percent say it has no impact on the writing they do for school and 64 percent report inadvertently using some form of shorthand common to electronic text, including emotions, incorrect grammar or punctuation.”

Some linguists are mixed on the effect of texting on writing skills. There are those who think that this may not last and may just go the way of some slang words that are no longer used. Some think that learning texting is just like learning another language. As long as the students can keep them separated, then they see no problem with it.

Texting may be a passing thing, but it is definitely here for now. If you are trying to figure out what that text is or that abbreviation that someone sent you, you might want to check out the following list from the Vancouver Sun:

The top 10 commonly used abbreviations in texting — translated to plain English:

– 411 — All the information

– BBIAS — Be back in a second (also BBIF — be back in a few, and BBL — be back later)

– BFN — Bye for now

– ETA — Estimated time of arrival (used for deadlines and when to expect something/someone)

– FYI — For your information

– KK — Okay, okay (I understand what you’re saying)

– LOL — Laugh out loud

– OMG — Oh my God

– TTYL — Talk to you later (also TTYS — talk to you soon)

– UOK — Are you okay?

If you want to know what your kids are saying to each other, here are some common text abbreviations to watch for. Parent alerts include:

– PAW or 9 — Parents are watching

– POV — Parent over shoulder

– CD9 — Code 9, meaning Parents are around

– P911 — Parents coming into room alert

– PIR — Parents in room

– PSOS — Parent standing over shoulder

– KPC — Keeping parents clueless

– NP — Nosy parents (But this is also used as “no problem”)

Want to know your kids’ relationship status? Nothing to be alarmed about if they text:

– LYLAB — Love you like a brother

– LYLAS — Love you like a sister

– LDR — Long distance relationship

But you don’t want to see:

– 420 — Let’s get high/marijuana use

– LGH — Let’s get high

– LH6 — Let’s have sex

– LHOS — Let’s have online sex

– LIK — Liquor

How is their day going? Here are a few common indicators:

– 2MTH — Too much to handle

– ADIH — Another day in hell

– ADIP — Another day in paradise

– LTHTT — Laughing too hard to type

– HHIS — Head hanging in shame

– CWOT — Complete waste of time

– IMSB — I’m so bored

– BOOMS — Bored out of my skull

– 121 — One to one (private chat invitation)

If your son or daughter texts you a status report, you should be familiar with:

– BHL8 — Be home late

– CUL8R — See you later

– G2G — Got to go

– G2R — Got to run

– ILBL8 — I’ll be late

– TTYL — Talk to you later

Texting Offers Latest Marketing Opportunity

Texting Offers Latest Marketing Opportunity

Top Links Explaining Texting (SMS) and Short Codes

Multi-Tasking and Time Management: Are We Really Attention-Switching?

Can Texting Damage Writing Skills?