In the age of touch phones, butt-dialing seems to be a thing of the past…or not.
I wasn’t guilty of butt-dialing last night, but I did accidentally send a text to the wrong recipient…who happened to be my boss. Woops! Luckily, it wasn’t an even remotely damaging text, but it made me cringe to imagine people who unfortunately have sent damaging texts.
As for me, a couple weeks ago I gave my sister some chicken stock that I had leftover from making dinner one night. Random segue: isn’t it the most annoying culinary dilemma when a recipe calls for 1/4 cup of “insert food of your choice here,” but you’re forced to buy a gallon (that’s an exaggeration) of it because that’s all it comes in at the supermarket? You know chances are you’ll never use it again, but what other option do you have? Anyhow, back to the story. Of course, this week I find myself needing another 1/4 cup of chicken stock. These darn 1/4 cup recipes! So I texted my sister: “did you ever use that chicken stock I gave you?” Um…so yeah, that didn’t go to my sister. That went to my boss. Aaakwaaard!
My text was benign, but I have heard horror stories where text messages that were accidentally sent or phone calls that were accidentally made were not so benign. Long story short, I worked with some interns this past summer who accidentally butt-dialed their preceptor, while they were in the car talking…let’s just say not so professionally…about said preceptor. I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination. All I’ll say is it was an extremely cringe-worthy and uncomfortable thing to watch unfold afterward.
So readers, be super cautious with your phones. Are they placed somewhere (pocket, purse, etc.) where they may be prone to being turned on and dialing on their own? Before you send a message, look to the top of your screen. Are you in fact texting the right person?