Have you ever text messaged the wrong person?  Ever heard of "textual harassment" or "texting while intoxicated"?  If not, read on.  You'll get a kick out of this.

I first wanted to write an article only about text messaging the wrong person after learning that I am not the only person guilty of it.  I'll get to that. However, this is a topic that goes beyond this one blunder.  So let's explore...

It happens to everyone, including celebrites. In fact, celebrities are now leading the way in the art of dumb mistakes in texting. We usually get the dirt on them as they open their mouths on twitter, or better yet, take a revealing photo of themselves, which usually ends up being sent phone-to-phone - like in high schools. Consider Vanessa Hudgens. In September of 2007, her photos started circulating the Internet after what seems to be some private phone texting into the hands of an untrustworthy friend or lover. The problem plagued her again in August 2009 when more photos turned up.

But this is really nothing new in the world of the famous, is it? Let's get down to what happens to real people...

For me it all started when I acquired my first PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) phone.   These phones have large touch screens and locking software is frankly a pain in most cases.   Inevitably, the phone would dial back in error anyone I was on the phone with last.  This happened from time to time and usually it was my wife. WAS. LOL.

Nooooo!  I never spoke to anyone I shouldn't be talking to, don't go assuming too much.  The only story there is that I was annoyed by my phone.  There was this one time when I was out to lunch with a friend from high school, an old band buddy.  We were catching up at nice sit down restaurant.  My phone called my wife while it was on the table!  She scolded me later, "You idiot, you left a 20 minute voice mail at my office!" You'd think the joke ends there. She went on because she was angry, not pissed, but angry.   Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my wife heard me speak things she should not have heard.   And no, I didn't speak ill of her.   I recall telling my friend that my wife didn't know me.  We were talking about how she angrily told me once she didn't want to know about my past life before her and I had to put all my photos of my life before meeting her in a crate and put a padlock on it.  I'm not kidding.  So at lunch I'm saying..."There is a side of me my wife will never know and I resent that."    The fallout at home was hardcore.  I won't detail it, you can imagine what a woman does when she is angry and decide for yourself what happened.

Pocket dialing is a problem many phones are starting to combat. We've all sat on our phones and accidentally dialed either a friend or random stranger.

And I'm vindicated again here as I've looked it up and found people actually do worse things, such as drunk dial.  Just read The New Social Etiquette: Friends Don't Let Friends Dial Drunk.

In the end, I have had to actually remove people from my PDA phone completely to ensure my phone doesn't dial them.

Now you know where it all started for me, and then it evolved.  I now have a love/hate relationship with my PDA phone, because next came text messaging.   Have you ever replied to, or just simply sent, a text message to the wrong person?  I have, but I've gotten that under control over time. LOL

I watched Neil Patrick Harris co-host a show and chat about his I-phone and trade stories.  Wouldn't you know it, he brought up this very subject. You would think Mac Iphones wouldn't make it easy to text the wrong people. Others have their own embarrassing moments to share here.

Bam! I'm exonerated of embarrassment!  I'm not the only one!  He tells a couple cute stories about how he's both replied to and simply sent text messages to the wrong person. 

So how does this happen to completely rational, sane, technically savvy and educated men and women?

Here are a couple discussion boards discussions on the topic:

1. Ex-wife and ex-husband child custody wrangle (ironic but no connection to me) ... oh and solution to anyone a victim of this nonsense... change your cell phone number and only allow them to call your home.

2. Various people discussing mistakes and text messaging tactics (how to worm your way out of mistakes)

3. Woman accidentally text messages state trooper for pot (thought it was her dealer)

Well, for me, it's the PDA phone. Not just a phone. With a PDA phone, you have a call history listed on the touch screen.  A quarter or dime, car key etc.. can touch the screen and initiate the call if your phone is in your pocket. Gremlins too, don't forget them. Because something dialed my wife while my phone was lying innocuously on my table that day at lunch! :)

Then, there is the user-initiated blunder - the dumb mistake you are at fault for and no one else. These mistakes happen when you are emotional, and I suppose that happens mostly when you are drunk. There are names for this: drunk-dialing, texting while intoxicated, being intexticated. 

Example? Sure... Try comedic actress Anna Faris. Instead of sending a text to her fiance, she typed the wrong number and sent the message to a kid instead where she asked him to get drunk with her.

(continued on page 2)

(Links)