A Device With A Mind of Its Own

6 days ago

I had to let out a chuckle at the uncanniness of life when I saw this prompt a few days back because just an hour or so before, I’d made a terrible blunder, one that had me nearly sweating in anxiety.

I think it’s necessary to remind everyone that in this generation of ours, unless you’re a robot, you’ve got to make texting blunders. For a somewhat texting perfectionist like me, blunders like improper or omitted punctuations is enough to send me to overdrive, as I’d have to fix it, else I wouldn’t breathe well, literally. But that’s just me with my own weirdness.

However, I’ve made several other blunders by texting the wrong people and all of that. I’ll share a few instances with you. Currently, I use a Redmi phone from Xiaomi brand, and if you’ve used any of their devices, you know you’ve got to be extra careful when you’re on a voice call with someone. Because of its ultra sensitivity, you could touch things without knowing. Like how I was having a serious conversation, adult topics included, with my friend, and next thing I knew, two more people were added to the call, one of which was my Mom and the other, a Church colleague.

Full on panic mode, I tell you. It’s funny how such a thing immediately gets you disoriented, and I just hung up completely. What saved me, though, was the fact that while they were both added to the call, I don’t think either of them was online, so it was just easy to say, “Oh, it was a mistake, sorry” when they apologized for missing the call and asked what I wanted to say.

Similarly, I was on a call with someone who is using a Redmi phone as well, but he was not so lucky, lol. Next thing we knew, we were hearing new people talking. One calling his name and already laughing at the conversation he and I were having.

I was like, “As how again?” lol. But at that time, I thought the fault was from me, so I did what I’d usually do which is to hang up. Then he texted afterwards to let me know that the fault was from him. Because we use similar devices, I couldn’t get mad, so we just shared a good laugh over it.

I think the one that has truly set me off is something I think a lot of people will find relatable. So, you know how busy you could get sometimes, and maybe you’re talking with two or more people, so soon enough, you start replying from the notification bar that pops up when their message comes? Yeah, exactly that could get you into big trouble.

Here’s what happened that day. I was texting my best friend and another guy like that who I wasn’t exactly keen on talking with. So, I stopped replying his texts at some point, but I was still having conversations with my best friend via the notification bar. If this has already happened to you, you can already guess where I’m headed. You guys know how wild chats with your best friend could get. So, she texted something and I pulled the notification bar as always and hastily typed my answer to the wild message sent and then clicked on send.

When you click on send, the text of the person is supposed to disappear to show that you’ve answered, right? So, why was I still seeing her message and Oops, not the guy's own anymore? You guys, I’d sent the message to him. What got me sweating was that, with that kind of message, the guy would probably think I wanted to talk wild with him and wouldn’t even listen if I said it was a mistake. So, I practically ran to WhatsApp and deleted the message ASAP. Turns out, he was online and the message had double ticked but he hadn’t seen it somehow.

So, it was now a series of, “Tell me what you deleted na,” instead of whatever other havoc could have happened. Saved by grace, I tell you. I’ve learnt my lesson now. Never again am I chatting from the notification bar, and also if you're using a Redmi phone, earpiece/earpods is your friend. Better still, you could leave WhatsApp completely to your home page while on the call to avoid stories that touch. Hehe.