“Hey
Merry Christmas to I and ur family :)”
“Thank
you the same to you but I don't know who you are.”
“Merry
Christmas to u both! Enjoy fam. & friends. All the best for
2014. See u next year.”
“Who
might you be?”
These
text messages were taken directly from the screen of my wife's smart
phone and are quite real. These are both outgoing and incoming texts.
I'm sure they aren't the only examples of confused, wire-crossed,
season's greetings bouncing around the expanding world of text
messaging this joyous holiday season as traditional Christmas Cards
go the way of horse-drawn carriages and gas lanterns. It's the modern
way of sending Christmas cards and then forgetting to sign them.
Somebody
knows our cellphone number and wants to send a Christmas greeting,
but obviously their number isn't in our address book as our cellphone
can't assign it to anyone we know. By not telling us their names,
we are left in the ethereal dark. Why caller ID doesn't show the
incoming name is curious, but it seems to be the case. If it isn't in
our address book, caller's name doesn't show up. None of the
messages we received were identified by caller ID, so we have no idea
who called, or rather who texted. Going on-line and using reverse look-up is a waste of
time unless you want to pay for every number you search as all the
old free, look-up services have evaporated in our new corporate
climate of pay, pay, pay.
At
least we have an electronic trail, the calling telephone number, to
follow back to the sender. Not quite as easy as recognizing a return
address, but it is a way to contact and identify the mystery
well-wisher. Unless, of course, it was a wrong number.
