Texting Revelation

I know that as a child of the 90's and as part of the generation that grew up with computers, TiVo, and cell phones smaller than a dollar bill, I probably should have figured this out long ago, but I always was a late bloomer. And  there's probably that whole I-knew-it-subconsciously-but-never-actively-thought-about-it vibe in play as well, but whatever. My revelation : texting is a most exceptional medium of flirtation!

Really! Just think about it - you don't have to worry if you are sending off the right body-language signals that people are always talking about in magazines (I only read them sometimes! Stop judging me!), you don't have to have a come-back all set up - you can take a few minutes to think of clever responses, and you have a record of you conversation RIGHT THERE so hours later you can peruse the messages with your girlfriends and analyze the whole thing. Additionally you can flirt whenever is convenient for you! No waiting to run into him on campus or at a party. Or if you, like me, are on break and are thus separated from your attempted flirt-ee by about 250 odd miles (or more. Or less.), you don't have to let time and space stand in your way!

So seriously, how did you older generations get along without texting-flirting? I guess you could have called your intended flirt-ee. But in today's day and age, that can be taken as "forward." And calling people is scary - it implies all sorts of desires about dating, which can be a touchy subject when just getting to know a person. With texting there's time to test the waters - check how responsive they are - before you get up the guts to ask them on an actual date (insert scary music and crashing lightening in the background).

Granted there are draw-backs - lack of human contact means that you can't actually analyze the guy yourself - just like he can't analyze you. Emotions don't translate as well to texting (unless you have a wide emoticon vocab - which I don't because for some reason my phone refuses to text parenthesise and semi-colons - and even that isn't always flawless) and like I said, people can take time to get back to you - so you don't know if he's actually that witty or if he's getting coached by one of his more suave male friends (or perhaps knowledgeable best female friend, as the case often can be - or so I hear).

But despite the drawbacks, I think text flirting is an excessively useful tool. And yes, for those of your who don't  know me (which thus far is none of you), the reason I am inspired to blog about the pros and cons of text-flirting is because someone did ask for my number recently and for once actually used it. AND he's not a creeper! I know - how often does that happen right??? I won't give you the details though so that way, if and when nothing works out, you'll forget that I wrote this post and not ask me "So what happened to..?" and thus not open up the poorly stitched together hole in my chest that is sure to be there after my heart has (once again) been torn brutally from my chest and stamped/squished into the cold pavement of rejection.

Ok, it won't be that bad. I just like be hyperbolic. And using big words.