With new technology comes new ways of communicating.  And with all forms of communication there’s always different ways of interpreting meaning.  With the introduction of text in years past we’ve overtly misinterpreted them in how we read the words on the screen.  Giving inflections to speech that was never meant to have it, or misreading sentences entirely.  While that’s all common knowledge we still forget when it happens to us.  But that’s not what I want to talk about today.  It’s the space between those texts that caught my attention.

In the dating world we always walk that fine line of interest and apathy.  While we want to reveal our feelings we never want to appear overeager.  At the same time we don’t want to seem too distant and have our partner lose interest.  It’s become the courtship of mankind and the game most of us play.  Don’t deny it.

My point being the poor translation into the texting medium that this game has taken.  We’re all aware of that age old 2-day rule when getting someones number.  Silly, yes, but something we’ve accepted as the norm.  With texting the game has become much more elaborate with so many intricacies and side passages.

She responded too quickly.  He never texts!  If she took 20 minutes, then you take 25.  If he responded immediately, you wait an hour.  The length of a text is also considered, but I digress.  Why should our romantic interest be graded on our messages, instead of just our text etiquette?  I never understood why an immediate text response is considered needy, or how a delayed text is thought to be suspicious.

For me, I choose not to abide by the rules of the game.  If I’m on my phone and receive a text, I’ll respond.  If I’m out with friends and miss a text, I’ll return it when I see it.  I choose not to play the game.  It’s over thinking to see a text and wait 20 minutes before responding.  To count a response time and return it with calculated interest seems counter-intuitive.  When I’m keen on someone I show it.  I’m an open book; no bars hold.