Texting Phrase-ology

At dinner we were discussing the dos and don'ts of texting the opposite gender. Hillaree thought I was so smart that I should write a book about it, but I'm thinking I will start with a blog post, and see if a book deal comes from this!!!

How to Start a Good Conversation Over Texts:
A lot of people think just saying, "hey" is a great conversation starter. I want to make it clear that this is NOT okay. This will confuse the other person like none other. Perhaps a, "Hey, how are things going?" or a more specific question "Hey, how was your test today?" are MUCH better starters. It will actually get the conversation going, instead of the awkward "hey" "hey back" "whats up" "nothing..." start. The best way to start a conversation would be to use an inside joke to make them laugh, or to ask them a specific question about something. Girls really like it when their name is included. A good example would be... "Tara, whats up! Have you seen the Hunger Games yet?" (P.S. I did see the Hunger Games today, and I LOVED IT!!!! Thats for another blog though...)

How to Keep a Good Conversation Going:
A lot of times phrases such as, lol, haha, or thats funny, can end the conversation prematurely. When you receive this kind of text, you have to make a decision. There are three options:
1. The conversation is over, and you are not going to text them back.
2. You don't want the conversation to end, so you text back a question to guarantee their response.
3. You don't want it to end, but you don't want to act like you have to keep texting them, so you text another "ender" to see if they will keep it going. This is called putting the ball in their court. It is now up to them to decide if they want to keep the conversation going. This is a good way to not come off too needy or desperate, but sometimes it leads to a never ending back and forth of "lol" "Ya haha" "Your funny" "you are too"...

How to Deal with Awkward Conversations:
Too many times the conversation turns awkward to the point of no return. The best way to get out of this would be to change the subject. You have to finish up the last thing you were talking about, but you can do that with a "lol" or a ":)" and then ask a new question or state something funny that just happened. "Lol, OMG, you would not believe what I just saw..." That would make the other person forget about what they were just saying and become interested in what you are about to say next. Only do this though if something funny actually did just happen, or you will look like a fool!

How to Manage the Fear of Texting First:
I saw something on pinterest that said, "I'm not ignoring you, I'm just waiting for you to text me first." A lot of times this is exactly the case, especially from the girls side. Girls do not want to feel needy or clingy. But most of the time, girls like to feel chased. If the girl starts every conversation you have, she will not feel chased. My rule is to never text first three times in a row! That might be silly, but its something I pretty much live by. If I have texted you first the last two times, then I'm going to wait for you to text me. (This only applies to people I am interested in dating, if they are already in the friend zone, the rule doesn't apply.)

How to Properly End a Conversation:
I feel like a lot of conversations just drop off. Sometimes this can be annoying to the person waiting on the other end for a text. If it is a short conversation then its okay to just drop it after you said what you needed to say. But if the two of you have been texting for more than an hour back and forth, I feel like it should end with a proper goodbye. Sometimes you need to point out that you are going to bed and you say goodnight. The worst is when you fall asleep before you say goodnight, and then you wake up and have a text from them and you feel like a jerk for not responding. If its not night time, but the conversation has to end, you can tell them that you are just going to start something and have to go, or a lot of the time it is okay just to say, "Talk to you later" or "See you soon". Those are polite ways to end the conversation.

How to Properly Use "dots":
From the mouth of Kelly Kapoor "3 dots means to be continued, 4 dots is a typo, and 5 dots means, "Woah, do not make me say what I want to say baby, but if I did it would blow your mind." Be careful with your dots, you do not accidentally want them to get the wrong impression based on your punctuation!

I hope you all found this to be very educational. Texting can be tricky business... I would say if you really want to talk to someone, call them on the phone. Talking is a lot less complex than texting, and it saves you time in the long run. There is no awkward time waiting for a response, and you don't have to think so hard about what you are going to say. And if you don't like talking over the phone, you could always just invite the person over to talk. Talking to someone face to face is probably the best way to communicate! But texting sure does come in handy when you want to talk all day long but have class and work getting in the way! I'm sure glad texting was invented!