Text-Etiquette, Am I Asking 4 2 Much?

April 20, 2008 - 12:00 pm By COED Staff

Last weekend I met a girl. She is beautiful and funny – we exchanged numbers, and things were looking good.Then at the end of the night as I was falling asleep, my phone chirped to inform me of a new text, from my new girl, “Great 2 meet u.”

Damn. And she had so much potential.

I know, I know, it is a sweet thing to say, but my problem is not with what she said, it’s how. I am the first to admit that I being extremely judgmental, but as an English major and someone who thoroughly enjoys words, I really hate to see them butchered.

Yeah, I’ve had people rationalize this texting style as faster, easier, whatever, but to substitute a single letter or a number for a word completely peeves me. Every time I see ‘4‘ in place of the word ‘for‘ or ‘c‘ instead of ‘see‘ or ‘2morrow‘ where there should be a ‘tomorrow‘ I cringe, I think of a junior high student, IQ points are lost, and a person suddenly seems extremely lazy- is it really that much harder to just type the extra two or three letters?? (The answer is no.)

Since she has been a little MIA lately, and aside from her bad text – etiquette I really thought she was a great girl I am not going to write her off (get it, write her off… since she doesn’t spell words right?) for lazy spelling. I’ll give her a shot, but I am just wondering, exactly how long do I have to wait before I can ask her to please expel the extra effort and use complete words?

Matt says:

April 20, 2008 at 12:14 pm

Never ask. You’ve just got to get over it lad. I’m an English major myself and I hate to see the language butchered but I’m also a man of reason. I understand SMS is not the New Yorker so I can, begrudgingly, accept that some people will use disgraceful shortcuts.

You should only get pissed off if emails and other kinds of correspondence are done in shorthand.

Tyler says:

April 21, 2008 at 11:06 pm

Every time i get one of these texts i respond and ask “is your dignity worth those couple letters?”

melissa says:

April 22, 2008 at 5:46 pm

I agree with you, I think some people have just become so lazy. However, some people abreviate because their phone companies only allow so many characters. Verizon does this and I know when I am texting someone and I want everything I am typing to get there in one email I have to abbreviate some words so that part of the text doesn’t get cut off.

CHACHI25 says:

April 23, 2008 at 12:05 pm

You don’t have sex with her vocabulary, so….

Eva says:

April 29, 2008 at 12:53 am

It ticks me off also.

I find it romantic to write everything out clearly, and with proper punctuation. All that shows effort and emotion.

If I were you, I would be totally turned off. I mean, that’s just one sentence she typed, so limitation of characters clearly wasn’t the issue.

In your position, if you’re still with her, I would bring this up as a topic of discussion, being like, “I noticed that you use shortcuts while texting, but why bother if the text is short to begin with?” Say that it’s easier and quicker for you to comprehend texts when everything is spelled out completely.

If you don’t want to take that route, then send her some romantic texts with everything spelled out. When she thanks you for it, slip in the fact that you like seeing everything written out in texts.

Sorry for the blabber, but it is good blabber though!

Good luck!

PS: At least she isn’t taking the time out to substitute all “O’s” with “0’s,” and “I’s,” with “1’s,” and “A’s,” with “@’s.”

May 1, 2008 at 3:17 am

Wow Rory, is it a guy, or a girl you have met? Your other post begs to differ from this one. BUSTED.

http://www.collegecandy.com/wired/8419

Check it out everyone!

ERIC LAPOINTE says:

May 1, 2008 at 5:06 am

YOUR A FAG. YOU COULD BE TEXTING WHILE DRIVING OR UNDER CIRCUMSTANCES WHERE YOU DO NOT HAVE THE TIME. SUCK SOME DICK AND STFU. OH, WAIT SORRY: LET ME SPELL THAT OUT, “SUCK SOME COCK AND SHUT THE FUCK UP. IF YOU CAN’T SHUT THE FUCK UP, SHOVE THE COCK IN YOUR MOUTH TO DO IT.”

maybe this should be says:

May 1, 2008 at 9:28 am

ohhh man! Eva busted Rory everyone! wow she busted him/her good. killer BUSTING Eva!!!!

May 1, 2008 at 9:30 am

eric is def one of those passive agressive d-bags that need to talk shit in comment boards to feel better about themselves. relax man, life’s a garden…. dig it.

chub says:

July 17, 2008 at 11:54 am

Wow dud get a hold of your self if you haven’t noticed when you text on some phones there is a limit to how many letters you use, i know your an English major and stuff but get your head out your ass its just a fast and conservative way of sending a message on the phone so chill the fuck out you FAG!!