Girl survives rude emoticon, becomes texting queen
Kate Moore in all her glory.
(Credit: LG)Here's a thought that might numb more than just your fingers.
About 250,000 people entered the LG National Texting Championship, which concluded Tuesday. Yes, a quarter of a million people wanted to prove that they could text faster, more accurately, and ignore more distractions. Like insulting emoticons.
The winner, you will find it difficult to accept, was a 15-year-old girl. Her name is Kate Moore. She is from Iowa. And amid her boundless joy, she told the Associated Press: "Let your kid text during dinner! Let your kid text during school! It pays off."
Oh, Lordy.
Kate battled through rounds of texting while blindfolded, while being distracted by an actor dressed as an emoticon, while playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and simultaneously picking her nose.
Yes, I only made up the last one.
Indeed, according to CNN, the forlorn girl who came in fourth, Jordan Rowe, failed to accurately text "which wicked witch wished which more wicked witch in the well?" while having to listen to an actor dressed as an emoticon talk trash about her sister.
How did the emoticon even know she had a sister? Why would an emoticon talk trash? Why would an emoticon talk at all?
There are so many questions. But because I know many of you worship competition, you will want to know what fine texting dexterity brought Moore to digital nirvana.
Well, it all came down to a tiebreaker in the best of three final. And the two (girls, surprisingly) in the final round had to text: "Zippity Dooo Dahh Zippity Ayy...MY oh MY, what a wonderful day! Plenty of sunshine Comin' my way....Zippitty Do Dah Zippity Aay! WondeRful Feeling Wonderful day!"
Truly.
You will want to let those closest to you know that Moore told CNN she sends somewhere around 500 texts a day. And that she won $50,000 for her troubles. And that she cried.
Oh, Moore also said she's a good student and terribly sociable.
However, I am still extremely concerned about what kind of mean-spirited, insensitive souls would allow for a trash-talking emoticon. It could ruin a girl's tornado-like texting ability for life.
This unnamed girl has emoticons on her fingers. There is no evidence she uses them to talk trash.
(Credit: CC Lu Lu/Flickr)
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
What have I been doing with my life?!?!?!
+1
This is awesome. :)
I wish there was a prize for adding people the quickest on social networking sites... :P
Yes, but how did you do in the bagging contest? Did you have to bag blindfold?
Chris
As for the rest of you with nothing but nasty remarks to make towards this girl.... maybe it's time YOU evolve and catch up with the future of society. Sure it's a bit ridiculous that this "contest" was such a big deal for something so basic and I don't see any reason for the prize money to be so much. None of you know this girl and I don't believe she deserves to be called an "idiot" and ridiculed just because she's quick at something you're incapable of mastering.
As for your comment "I don't remember seeing ANY colleges that have degree's in texting nor a huge market demand for them either." ....where in the article did it state that she was planning on making a career out of texting? What kind of idiotic remark is that? Texting may me incredible complicated for you but honestly you do not need a college degree to do it. That said you do not need a college degree to be successful. I have my own business and am surviving quite comfortably and I've never spent a single second on a college campus. Some things just can't be taught. Oh, and I'm a damn quick texter and can text and entire message without looking at my phone. Pretty mind-blowing, huh?
Yes some children are brats about their texting. Parents only blame kids and the rest of society when referring to a negative characteristic about their child but they're sure proud to admit to their positive qualities being the result of their "great parenting". Take some responsibility. If your child doesn't know how to communicate without pushing buttons on a cell phone or computer keyboard then it's obvious you aren't able to communicate with your child and educate them.
Re: "evolving as a species", it has already been demonstrated and proven that sms-speak if turning kids into idiots who are unable to spell, even going as far as handing in school-work written with sms-speak in. Also, again re "evolving", I guess you have not paid attention to/heard the accounts of people being hit (and in some cases killed) by vehicles because they walk into roads while texting, paying ZERO attention to the world around them. That's not "evolving", that's Darwin awards.
Lastly, a $50K for a texting competition is, imho, assinine and will just further the devolution of the language.
Quote:
risket: How the heck is texting the future of society? Texting is actually breeding ignorance .... i.e. they have mobile devices and ignore phone-calls & e-mail but will acknowledge SMS.
Re: "evolving as a species", it has already been demonstrated and proven that sms-speak if turning kids into idiots who are unable to spell, even going as far as handing in school-work written with sms-speak in.
I just wanted to throw my two cents in here. First off, I'm not necessarily endorsing Risket's post. What I wanted to point out though was that texting is actually *not* breeding ignorance in spite of how much you or others may be inclined to assume. Let me tell you a little bit about me: I'm in my mid-twenties, attending university (working towards a bachelor's degree with a major in English, a minor in History, and a minor in Applied Ethical and Political Philosophy), I work full-time and live on my own, and I send approximately 1000-1200 text messages a month. I do not feel myself to be an ignorant person (however you may define that) and I do not believe that text messaging creates ignorant people. Young people (13-17 year olds) are typically, by their nature, ignorant people. It's simply the way of things. I don't believe that the text messaging revolution has created this reality (although it may at times exacerbate it). This however, is not the core of my post. The reason I really wanted to respond to your comments is because of your incorrect assumption that "sms-speak" as you call it is "turning kids into idiots who are unable to spell". I recently took a course in Linguistics and as a part of it we looked at such things as the evolution of languages and the impacts of new technologies on language. You are what Linguists call a language purist (someone who believes that change or evolution within or among languages is inherently a bad thing/re: your comment about the devolution of language) and although you're neither right nor wrong in your position on that matter I would like to point a couple things out. First, sms-speak is actually more difficult to interpret in many cases than standard, grammatically correct English which means that people who can read and write it deftly actually have a better command of language and language acquisition than those who cannot and second, y r we so resistnt 2 chnge tht maks ppl more efficient? If I can get my point across faster and just as effectively as someone else does that not make me a better communicator? Finally, I'd just like to note that, for someone who has so much distaste for anything but proper English, the sentence: "That's not "evolving", that's Darwin awards." is grammatically incorrect and the acronym "imho" is shorthand commonly used in instant messaging conversations and, you guessed it, text messages.
Texting queen, feel the beat from the tambourine
You can txt, you can jive, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the texting queen
There was a news item on tv out here recently about a girl who did 300+ per day - yet had a job. I bet she does a psss poor job if she texts that much!
They're just showing off. That's what you'd call childish no matter what age they may be.
- by cmooreia August 26, 2009 12:33 PM PDT
- She won't be on welfare because she's a straight A student in her AP classes. She has never gotten anything lower than 99% on her yearly standardized tests. She will have no problem not only getting into college but she'll havey many to choose from. She just used her texting skills to raise money for our local childrens hospital.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(30 Comments)As for speaking... she competes in monologue, duet and one act play competitions. Did anybody think that she just might be a really, really smart kid? She's also well rounded, goes to football games with her friends. She has a type A personality and is obviously a high achiever. For those who understand texting, she only got a qwerty phone 2 weeks before the competition. She had only received her first cell phone 9 months prior when she started high school.
As far as doing a psss poor job at work. She works for a children's mental health agency volunteering her time with autistic children. They adore her. And no, she doesn't text while there.
Quit assuming and judging someone you've never met or had the pleasure to talk to.