The Texting Game

At first I was apprehensive about the texting feature on cell phones. I figured why text when you can call? However, once I began texting, I realized the real question is why call when you can text?

Texting is great. It allows just enough intimate communication without actual conversation. When texting we can write in shorthand with phrases such as lol (laugh out loud), idk (i don't know), ruok (are you okay), and the list goes on. Texting is like a little game. Similar to the fancy footwork required in tennis, texting requires fancy wordplay. The winner of the game is the person who can pack the most punch in the smallest amount of space.

Because I was late in entering the texting game I am catching up with all my friends and their dexterous experience. I tend to write things out in full instead of employing the flashier texting lingo. No worries though -- practice makes perfect.

I forgot to mention the other aspect of the texting game. Once a player receives a text, it becomes the responsibility of that player to respond immediately. The faster one responds the better.

If I send a text and I don't receive a quick response back then I begin to worry. Actually it goes beyond worry. I begin to overanalyze my relationship with said person. Is he/she mad at me? Why is this person ignoring my text? Was the text I sent in some way offensive or inappropriate? However, thirty or so minutes later, once I've received a response, I breath a big sigh of relief and wonder why my brain was being pulled in ten different directions for no reason. Such is the life of a texter. You must deal with the good times and the bad.

Now that I have become a perpetual texter I feel less and less comfortable talking to people on the phone. Is that weird? I don't think so. Phone conversations can be awkward. We are never entirely sure how the other person is interpreting our pauses or voice inflections. It is hard to gauge the status of a relationship through the awkwardness of a phone conversation. Thus, we have moved to an even more impersonal medium--the text. But you know what, sometimes people write what they cannot say.

TTYL!   XOXO