The 5 Texting Rules Of Modern Dating
Gone are the good old days of waiting by the phone, willing your significant other to call. Nowadays, we spend our free time strategically calculating the exact length of time from when you open a text, to when you finally decide to reply.
“Don’t want to look too thirsty,” you tell yourself as you count down the minutes before it’s socially acceptable for you to respond to a text from a crush. “How long should I wait before responding?” I hear you ask. To be frank, I’m not a 100 per cent sure, but I hear it’s somewhere along the lines of a year, maybe a month, if you’re really into them.
Sound a bit ridiculous? Yeah, so are some of the texting “rules” listed below, but times are changing. Texting is one of the unavoidable essentials of modern dating. And like anything else in life, different people have different rules for texting. Here are five that you may break or follow at your own discretion.
The “No dick pics, ty” rule
Out of all the texting rules floating out there, this is one you definitely want to abide by. I mean, no girl or guy has ever received an unsolicited photo of a random penis and thought “Hey, you know what? This guy is someone real special. I’d love to go to dinner with him.”
I know some texting rules are ridiculous and made to be broken, but seriously, unless someone specifically requests sexually explicit photos, do not send them. And in the event that someone does request sexting, proceed with extreme caution. Always remember that even on apps like Snapchat, there’s no escaping the dreaded screenshot.
The “Don’t text first” rule
Never be afraid to try and spark a light conversation every now and then via text. I mean, a conversation doesn’t just start by itself. Someone has to initiate it at some point or another, why can’t that person be you?
That being said, it doesn’t feel great when you’re the one who’s always initiating the conversation. It leaves you feeling annoying and needy. Nobody wants to feel like that. So, if it starts to feel like the other party isn’t as interested or putting in as much as effort into the conversation as you, I suggest you consider moving on.
The “Don’t go overboard with emojis” rule
When used wisely, emojis are the perfect cherry on top of captivating and witty banter. It helps us clearly communicate difficult tones of voice like sarcasm through text, without accidentally offending the other party. However, there comes a certain point in a conversation where emoji just stops making sense and become annoying.
The “Don’t respond immediately” rule
This has got to be one of the most ridiculous and useless, not to mention annoying AF, texting rules out there.
For some strange reason, somewhere along the relatively short period of time since texting became a thing, we’ve come to believe that responding to a message immediately after receiving it is a big fat NO. Some swear by waiting at least an hour before responding. Some even go as far as to wait a couple of days.
I’m not exactly sure how this line of logic works, but rumour has it that by purposefully not responding to a text immediately after reading it, you avoid looking thirsty.
The “Text bombarding” rule
It can be very uncomfortable when someone continues to blow our phone up with paragraph after paragraph, when we’re trying our best to politely kill the conversation with an apathetic “lol”, “haha”, or even a “k” if you’re bold enough.
Unless it’s urgent, if someone has read your message and is yet to send a proper reply, just let it be. People need space to think and breathe sometimes. If they want to talk to you, they’re bound to reply sooner or later. You don’t need to virtually suffocate them.
Zaya is a current student of journalism and science at Monash University, who has proudly mastered the art of laughing at herself and not taking life too seriously.