Confession: I hate text messaging.
I realize that I am supposed to be of the generation that is all about that text but y’all, I just can’t.
I prefer talking on the phone, mostly because I like to hear people’s voices but also because I know exactly when a phone conversation is over on account of how both parties say “goodbye” and then definitively hang up the phone.
I NEVER KNOW WHEN A TEXT MESSAGE CONVERSATION IS OVER.
Like, no one says goodbye on a text message so that means all these words are just sitting there with no conclusive ending and it makes me feel like I’m living in the middle of one giant, awkward, conversation pause.
I CAN NOT HANDLE THAT.
It renders me completely useless.
The resulting fallout is that I spend the rest of the day staring at my phone, wondering if that last text was, in fact, the last text and fretting about whether or not I am supposed to write something back while wistfully singing old-school Cranberries songs at my smartphone like “Do you have to, do you have to, do you have to let it linger?”
Is there some sort of text etiquette that I am unaware of? Because I am very southern and appreciate a good set of etiquette guidelines for things in my life. And my friends keep telling me that there is not, that the whole POINT of texting is that you just have this long, ongoing, unending conversation happening.
Just thinking about that concept makes me feel slightly frantic. I need conclusions, people. I can not handle the pressure of being involved in a conversation that never ends.
So then what ends up happening is that I feel overwhelmed and immerse myself in something else and then the next time I look at my phone I’m all “Oh no. I never responded back to so-and-so. I can’t write her back NOW because it’s been like six hours since she texted me that question. That would seem weird.”
And then that cycle repeats itself until I’m looking at my phone thinking “Oh no. I never responded back to so-and-so. I can’t write her back NOW because it’s been THREE WEEKS since she texted me that question. That would seem weird.”
So what I do to circumvent this whole thing is, when someone texts me a question I just hit the call button AND CALL THEM because I know the phone is in their hand. Which totally makes me THAT PERSON but seriously, I just can’t handle texting and at least I don’t fail to give them an answer. I am not the only one, right? Help me.
Although I will say that this week I finally figured out how to get emojis on my phone and my life has been changed forever. I spent that whole night just texting lots of tiny pictures of the Statue of Liberty to all of my friends because SO CUTE.
Maybe that can be my signature, my end-of-conversation signal. It will be like my mic-drop.
TINY STATUE OF LIBERTY, KA OUT.
(p.s. my cell phone lock screen is from French Press Mornings – not sponsored, just love her stuff!)
