When your text message gets to the wrong person

When it’s really light outside, I can see floaters in my eyes. When it’s dark I, see flashes.

I have an eye ailment known as lattice degeneration.

Nothing major, I just need to have it checked every six months to make sure I don’t get what is called a retinal detachment.

That was what I set out to do last week at the American Eye Center.

I am such a paranoid coward. Every time I have to see a doctor, I think of the worst situation.

While waiting for my turn, I started texting my husband something really mushy telling him where I was and to please pray for me.

In my nervousness, I made a mistake and sent it to a friend named Jen whose name is directly above my husband’s name, Jeroen.

Oh God. Jen is going to think I’m getting mushy on her.

In those few milliseconds, I realized I was sending the message to the wrong person, I furiously tried to abort the message by pressing the red button on my phone.

Too late. Jen got it, but I followed it up with an "Oops" message to explain.

Thank God it was harmless.

Texting Accidents

MJ* wasn’t so lucky.

She saw her dad with another woman with whom he was obviously having an affair. In her anger she started to text the following message to her boyriend: "T***ina si papa kasama yung babae nya! Pag nalaman to ni mama aatakihin sa puso yon!"

Unfortunately, MJ was not thinking straight. She sent the message to her mom, who had a heart attack.

Fortunately, the mom survived.

* * *

Gigi* was venting to her best friend about her unhappy marriage. She had a huge age gap with her husband, was getting bored with him, and she was carrying on an exciting affair with her gym trainer.

In between texts to her best friend, Gigi received a text from her husband inquiring what time the kids were getting off school.

Confused by the two people texting her at the same time, Gigi sent text about her hot affair to her husband.

It didn’t immediately occur to her that she sent it to the wrong person, till her husband rang and said, "Let’s talk."

"Sure, what about?"

"Your text."

They spoke that evening. Now, they’re no longer together.

* * *

Dianne* was working on a movie set and was enthralled to have met and exchanged cellphone numbers with a popular young actor.

After the shoot, she texted a messge meant for her best friend: "(Insert actor’s name) is so hot! I love him!"

In her excitement, she sent it to the young actor and she freaked out but did nothing.

Two days later when they met on the set, the young actor went up to Dianne and smiled, "Love mo pala ako?"

ow To Avoid It

H In this day and age of electronic messaging like text and e-mail, I’ve often had this phobia of sending the wrong message to the wrong person. So I thought about making a list of safety precautions just in case.

1) If you often send a message to a certain person, make sure there is no name above that person. Since I send most messages to Jeroen, I could then change Jen’s listing as Gap Jen (as though Jen worked for a popular jeans company).

2) If you’re scared or paranoid you will accidentally send the wrong message to a person, list that person’s surname first, for example, Stewart Martha. In case you are gossiping about Martha, the chances that you will accidentally send it to Martha will be reduced.

3) Try searching for the person’s name before typing in your message. On your Nokia phone you can go to Names, search the person’s name, go to Options and choose Send. This way, you are sure to send the right message to the right person.

4) Another option is to choose a message in your Inbox and simply Reply to that person. Another way of knowing that person will receive your message.

Can You Abort A Message?

Over the landline, my friend and I made an experiment of aborting text messages with his Ericsson in Makati and my Nokia in Pasig.

I sent him a message and turned off my phone milliseconds after sending it. He still got the message.

He sent me a message and pressed the red button several times. I also got the message.

We decided there was no way you could really abort a message.

I wish someone would invent a phone with an abort button! I wonder how many people would buy.

So we thought about the ways to avoid sending wrong text, but in the end we concluded, when texting a delicate matter, do it slowly and carefully and have presence of mind to send it to the right person, because texting can make or break relationships and even cause heart ailments.

* * *

*Names and circumstances slightly altered to protect identities.