Yes, texting can be great. It opens doors for those who do not like to talk to people but who still like to be annoying. It makes it possible to say something simple without having to go through obligatory, polite chatter first. For me, though, it can be a hesitant process that fills me with self-doubt.
To text efficiently, you must misspell words—shorten them and change them to use the fewest characters possible. To misspell words on purpose, though, makes me feel a little sick. Sure I misspell words all the time, but asking me to do it on purpose is like asking me to stick a needle in a dead dog’s eye. I’d probably do it, but I’d definitely cringe. Misspelling a word makes me feel like an idiot—worse, it makes me feel that others will think I’m an idiot.
What if the recipient does not know that I know that “night” is not spelled “nite?” What if he thinks I really don’t know the difference between “to” and “too?” When texting, I may first type “too” in full, but then I fear that the recipient will think I’m a poor texter, one who is not savvy enough to create a shortened, fastly typed text. So, I’ll erase “too,” cringe, and type in “to.” Then, enlightened, I’ll erase “to” and type the number “2.” Clearly he will not think me so dumb as to mistake a number for a word, and now I’m using only one character instead of two or three. Brilliant!
But other misspellings are not so easily remedied. How best to shorten the lengthy word of "tomorrow?" I can't leave out an "r!" Best to just condense it to "tom" and confuse people when I type "I'll see you tom." (But I'm ann!)
Heaven forbid I will ever type “lol.” Why not just type “ha?” And is it possible to really feel the affection of a “luv ya?”
Texting is all about saying nothing with the fewest characters possible. Me, I prefer to say a lot with as few words as possible. And sometimes I prefer to just see how many words I can get out before somebody tells me to shut up.
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