When his conscience gets the better of him, a man texts his next-door neighbor which turns the issue into a huge misunderstanding. The message starts with an apology in which I say, “Bob, I’m sorry.”
I feel so bad about what I did and I have to admit it to you… The message now takes a turn into what seems like a surprising revelation.
He says that while Bob is away, he’s been having sex with his wife many times and enjoys it so much he just can’t control himself. He also says that no matter what they are playing, it can last “for hours and hours.”
Reading the exchange, Bob—who was having an average day—starts to get angry right away. Having been truly betrayed, he enters the bedroom while yelling and accusing his wife, showing his confusion and anger through everything he says. A simple mistake in a text message can cause a domestic crisis in just a short time.
Moments after the first one, your phone is buzzing again. The sender promptly clears the misunderstanding: “That’s what auto-correct does sometimes.” What I was trying to say was ‘wifi’.”
From one moment, the situation changes from a dramatic scandal to a silly comedy. A mis-sent message full of typos turned into a heated argument over infidelity. Bob was sure the man was only using his connection, not his wife’s.
After all, the situation is absurd, especially because a single misspoken word can mess up things, particularly when technology steps in.
There are several forces that cause these things such as auto-correct errors, our reliance on digital tools and the level of trust among neighbors. A potential soap opera result turns into a lesson about proofreading—and requesting the password again before sharing work.
