I have just bawled my DH....

berdie my lot are just the same. I get out my kindle fire and look at GN.

Sorry I may have given the wrong impression, they don't do it all the time. Because they are apart all week it only needs one to mention a dress or some new style shoes, and out comes the phone to view said item. They are well mannered..

Aka I agree totally. The art of communicating face to face is being lost to a virtual world and we, like lemmings, are being made to feel somewhat lacking if we don't do the same by paying the telecoms companies vast sums each month in order to be able to do so. Manners maketh the person. I switch off my wifi modem when children visit but they soon realise and switch it back on again. There is no hope it seems.

That raises another issue Berdie and it's a matter of manners. A whole new set of etiquettes need to be developed. I don't mind someone at my house answering their mobile phone, briefly, but sitting texting, on their iPad, laptop when they've come to visit me is not acceptable. Tell them.

The problem is now that when my GC's visit, its like a Cyber Cafe, all on laptops, I pads, or Iphones. The art of conversation is dissappearing, or is it just me???.

thatbags I don't send texts. In fact, I don't have a mobile phone. I have survived so far.

Thing is - he has an early breakfast. I have a very late one.

But still!

Not unreasonable to be cross! I think we are all the same though..if we are not really interested and we can get by without we do avoid learning how to do things even if we are perfectly able to do so!... but asking for help before breakfast is ridiculous

I have a friend, a retired TV producer, who is very academically able, intellectual etc but practically he is useless..never learned to drive, never tried any sort of DIY and does not own a mobile! Lucky he lives with a very practical and patient person..also academically able but practical too!

I suppose it's possible to survive in the modern world without ever sending a text?

Why don't those who don't want to send texts just adopt that approach? Seems the simplest option to me. If you can't be arsed to learn how to send texts, then don't. But don't ask someone else to do it for you.

It's not as if there were no other ways of communicating

I wonder if your husband is a little like me, lazy when it comes to texting. I am able to just can't be bothered, but if someone was prepared to do it for me then fine. Just a thought.

My £2.99 Samsung mobile has a mind of its own regarding predictive texting. I have to reset predictive texting almost every time I use it, and have often tapped out several lines of text before I notice the gobbledygook on the screen, because it's decided to do its own thing again. Grrrr

Can't bring myself to replace it though - that's the problem with having Yorkshire / Scottish blood in me!

I love predictive text, my DW doesn't, you should see some of the garbage I can write on her phone. Predictive anytime.

Come on jo8, cut the man some slack, surely he has some other talents you can exploit, what's a simple text message?, the ladies in my family can talk, read the paper, watch Strictly Come Dancing and text all at the same time. Its a man thing, don't get me started on getting my DW to check the oil on her car.

My OH is useless with most technical things, but mastered text quite quickly. Like all of us, he has sent some funny texts sometimes due to predictive texting - there was one he sent from France that asked me "How's the wind?".
It took me a while to work out that 'wind' should have been 'wine' - he is into winemaking, and I was supposed to be looking after it! At least I think that's what he meant.

As long as you do the texting for your DH - he will never learn because he doesn't have to!
Just refuse. If he really wants to be texting, he will master it.

My sister can't use predictive text and refuses to try. I found it really difficult when I first tried- which was many years ago, and my son used to get really irritated explaining it to me but it only then took me about 2 days to really 'get it'
Now I can text really quickly without really thinking about the keys I press - a case of my fingers have got the right buttons before I realise it myself!

Wait a minute here, this is all well and good, but before a man can send a text, predictive or not, he has to TURN THE MOBILE PHONE ON!!!!! If it's not on, you may as well carry a bar of soap in your pocket, it would be more use.

Texting DD once on holiday I meant to say Hope you're having fun but it came out and was sent as Hope you're having gin. How did I guess? she wondered.

I send blank texts to say I've received a message that doesn't need a reply. I'm using it as a nod or a murmured uhuh.

I like that phoenix

I sometimes used to send Mr P a blank text to show him that I wasn't talking to him.

Predictive text is a bit like having a satnav, and going a different way to annoy it.

I'm so slow at texting (can't do predictive) that I might as well be using one of those John Bull printing presses that we used to play with as kids. Ink all over your fingers and most of the letters back to front!!

All men should have a shed - mine practically lives in his.

My very unsophisticated mobile did have a brief dalliance with predictive texting until I switched it off. I am not sure if I would know how to turn it back on again if I wanted to. Somehow I strongly dislike my phone trying to second guess what I want to say, it annoys the hell out of me.

I get enough of that when trying to talking to my OH, he always thinks he knows what I am about to say.

I thought I had posted a diatribe about DH's irritating texting habits but it has not appeared and I can't be bothered to go through it all again.

Suffice to say I can type and send a text in a tenth of the time he takes.

Mine seems to think it can read my mind - and sometimes it's right!