Predictive Text
Before posting this microblog about education, I tried each of the prompts provided in the assignment. As I engaged with the predictive text on my phone, I noticed a pattern almost immediately. The following words kept coming up: love, kids, mom, boy, heart kiss emoji and heart emoji. It didn’t matter what I created, those prompts seemed to appear.
After doing a little research as to how predictive text works, I came across this quote on lifehacker.com “In its most basic form, keyboard prediction uses text that you enter over time to build a custom, local “dictionary” of words and phrases that you’ve typed repeatedly. It then “scores” those words by the probability you’ll use or need it again.”
As an quick experiment, I looked back at my texts with Craig (husband) and Priscilla (best friend), as these are the two people I text with most. I wanted to see how often these words and emojis appeared…do I even use them in texts? After looking over a week’s worth or texts I found that I do use them, and often! 
Knowing that predictive text is impacted by past conversations and common word use, my interest in predictive text microblogging perked up a bit. Although these microblogged sentences appear senseless, the words presented provide possible insight into the individual. In examining my own post, one might infer that I’m a mother who’s not afraid to show a little love! I’m eager to read the posts of classmates to see which words turn up in their own predictive text microblogs! It would be interesting to have a sampling of three or four microblog posts for this assignment, in order to identify patterns and commonalities, which would perhaps lead to a better understanding of the author.
Microblogging
After reading the lifewire.com article on microblogging, it was easy to see the benefits of a quick and concise post to social media sites, such as Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. I wonder though, if frequency, immediacy, minimalism and ease are playing a role in corroding authentic conversation and relationships. We’re living in a society of “next”. What’s next? I saw it, what’s next? What should I do next? Where am I going next? Who’s going to be next? What will I post next? Who will view my post next? It goes on and on. I want to live in a society of now – of being present, feeling satisfied and having gratitude.
This article from Time Magazine exposes the negative effects of microblogging platform, Instagram. The article focuses on teens and the struggles they face with depression, anxiety, body image, bullying and FOMO (fear of missing out), as a result of being highly engaged with microblogging. Even as an adult, aware of the darker side of Instagram, I often feel compelled to post and engage in the platform. Microblogging certainly has an addicting quality which needs to part of the conversation an weighed against its benefits.
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