"She was not good on the phone. She needed the face, the pattern of eyes, nose, trembling mouth… People talking were meant to look at a face, the disastrous cupcake of it, the hide-and-seek of the heart dashing across. With a phone, you said words, but you never watched them go in."
Thank God for the era of texting. People no longer have to talk face to face. People skills are not needed. Texting is in. Texting is it. Even phone calls are out the window.
When a friend calls me, which rarely happens anymore (most likely because I don't ever answer), I reply with a text after listening to the voicemail. Yes. I am that person.
Texting is easy. It can be done anywhere. Anytime. You can be BFF's with someone via text, and have nothing to say to them in real life.
The meaning of words is lost somewhere outside, in the airy invisible network in which text messages travel.
You can have a conversation all day via text, and have no idea what the end result was. Mean words can be said, and you can forget them. You can't see the reaction, the expressions of the person you are texting. They say one thing, you read another. You can re-read the text a million times, when the conversation is over. You can reason with the words you see. You can make up excuses for the words you see. You can make it all fine by twisting the words, rearranging them. Next time you see them, chances are it won't be mentioned.
In this same fashion, words you believe are good; conversations you believe are worthy and have meaning, are the same way. When the "conversation" is over, it has no real meaning and it never gets mentioned, again.
Real meaning is not something transmitted via text message.
Someone texts you something, you reply, "lol", because you have nothing better to say, or you don't know what to say. You don't want to start a fight, you don't want to get into it. Replying "lol", when you have nothing better to say, is the equivalent of standing in front of a person, mid conversation, and staring at them, silently. Yet, it is socially acceptable to reply to almost any text with, "lol".
In real life, You would have a conversation. A real one. You can't take twenty minutes to answer a question, when the person is face to face with you. Via text, you can take minutes, hours, or all day to reply. You can answer a few days later, and it can still be "acceptable". You don't have to actually end a conversation, via text, either. You can just stop texting, mid conversation. This is essentially the same as walking away from someone mid-conversation. This is some how also socially acceptable in the world of texting. The need for actual verbal conversations and etiquette has become obsolete. Distinct. Thanks, to the data packages.
I am not going to get into the loss of proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
However, I am fully into this texting scheme. I am guilty of all of the above. I sometimes find myself abbreviating every word; proper punctuation is occasionally skipped.
I don't mind the impersonalization that the world of texting brings.
You can say whatever you want, and it really doesn't mean anything. I am all for that.
I am a busy woman. I don't have time for real conversations. Meaningful words. Real emotions. True friends.
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