A friend was telling me an in-depth story about a guy she met and how he was giving off negative signals and it was hard to read him and he seemed cold. I said to her: “Describe his face to me.” She said she couldn’t because she didn’t see his face. My friend hadn’t had a real conversation, she had a textation.
Why is it that people think texting is like talking when it isn’t and never will be. We have had letters for years and emails and people knew that people could get the meaning confused, however, with texts we seem to think it is like talking.
I think some of the reasons why we think texting is like talking is because:
1. It is so instant.
2. Everybody does it.
3. Texting is quick to type and if we are careful what we text then there is no problem.
4. Talking is too hard sometimes and daunting.
5. Texting gets the message across fine.
Texting might get the message across fine, but it depends how we define fine! Fine, if we are okay with thinking the thoughts over and over:
1. Why did he say that (well, he didn’t).
2. Why did he not answer my text (he sent you a text, didn’t you get the whole message?).
3. Why would he mean that (well, he probably didn’t).
Communication is trickier enough when it is face-to-face and why people think they can solve issues via text is mind boggling. Sometimes face-to-face communication takes time, texting is only going to make face-to-face communication take longer.
A phone call is a little better and Skyping is a little better still, but unless you can touch the person, the communication is not legitimate.
If it’s late at night and you need to solve the issue, the best thing is to text the person and text that you would like to solve it, but in person, tomorrow:
Text: I am confused. I do not want to text you now about that, I am free tomorrow at 1pm. What time suits you?
Texts were only meant for quick messages of information and not as a way to fix problems of any kind, by hiding behind a phone!
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