Technology has certainly solved many of life’s problems, but it’s also created some interesting new ones as well. Take auto-fill, for example.
Cingular with me on a Sobieski Journey to the Y2k Quadmire of Serape!
Hilarious auto-correct errors aren’t unique to the iPhone, but for some reason it seems like they have the most offenses. Back when I was rocking a state-of-the-art Razr it never censored my repeated uses of swear words and after awhile helpfully tried to auto-fill the words “motherfucker” and “douche bag” for me. How sweet!
Frustration at the iPhone’s prudish insistence I not swear is rivaled only by my frustration at some of their ridiculous suggestions for commonly misspelled, or even sometimes correctly spelled, words.
For example, I wanted to tweet recently about a book that I just had to include on my wishlist. Except it didn’t like the word wishlist and automatically corrected it to “quagmire.” As in, “That book is totally on my quagmire!” Thanks, iPhone, for making me sound crazier than I already do. I don’t need any help with that. Really.
Instead of tweeting about that book (can’t remember the title now—good thing I added it to my quagmire!) I ended up tweeting about the quagmire of auto-correction and received some pretty hilarious responses from my twitter buddies:
fierceflawless @exlibris my phone just autocorrected ‘awesome’ to ‘serape’. As in, “I am totally serape”.
Honestly, fierceflawless is the very HEIGHT of serape. I’m not just sombrero that, either.
New mama (very new!) Hvnly responded that her phone favors Russian last names over all other parts of speech.
HvnlyDlite @exlibris lol! When I accidentally type “so is it” together it always auto-corrects to Sobieski.
Dr Stef’s phone can’t remember what decade we’re in, and I blame Y2k for this.
Lilacmess @exlibris awesome. My favorite is that whenever I type “Waltons” my phone corrects it to Y2k. “I’m over at Y2k right now.”
Perhaps my favorite auto-fill happened one time when my BFF texted me and was trying to say “Justin is coming with me.” Instead it came out,
“Justin is Cingular with me.”
Product placement in auto-correct?! I think we just discovered the advertising form of the future.
Little Big 
My iphone insists the word cutest doesn’t exist & instead always insists on autocorrecting to cutesy. Because THAT’S a word I want to use.
I also recall a story where a friend of mine received a text from a friend who was coming over, asking if she needed anything. I can’t remember the exact term she was trying to respond, but it was akin to “nothing”. The ever helpful iPhone autocorrected to “ganja”
Legalize it, and your iPhone? Will advertize it.
Hilarious.
Oddly, my iPhone is quite good at auto-correct. It lets me douchebag & F-bomb the day away, spells my sisters name (which probably has an extra E) correctly, and even understands that when I type a T all by itself, I’m shortening my dog’s name (and probably informing my husband about some dog barf).
Oh! But it won’t accept that iPad is a word.
WTF?
Hellfire is the suggested correction for our last name. I told my husband we should just go with it. It’s more appropriate given his chosen profession as a law talking guy.
Hellfire would also make an excellent bike gang name.
My phone autocorrects the word “lunch” to “lynch”. It’s extremely disturbing.
Creeeeeepy!
And you wonder why no one wants to go out to lunch with you! They all think you’re inviting them to a Glenn Beck rally.
I tried to type “gspot” and while yes, I should have added the “-” my iPhone helpfully corrected it to “happy.”
Um, your iphone knows what’s up.
Just days after I posted this my iphone corrected “naps” to “Maoist” and “thrifting” to “thrusting.”
I think my iphone thinks I lead a life that’s way more exciting than my actual life.
I’m actually starting to think the iPhone creators are just perverts. First, your thrifting/thrusting thing. Right after you tweeted about that, another friend tweeted that her iPhone corrected her “I’ll pik you up!” to “I’ll oil you up!” And my most recent incident, I texted my husband asking if he was in the bedroom or the “loving room” instead of living room. He texted back and said, “Isn’t that the same thing?”
BWA HA!