Dear Savvy Woman,

Melanie Notkin, the founder of www.SavvyAuntie.com, where I contribute articles on Be-ing Love Savvy (check it out their fun resources/gift ideas/community), recently asked me if I would be interested in writing an article on texing and dating. I’m going to post a little something here to get things going as I’ve felt a little writer’s block recently.

The Good: Texting can be an easy, instant way to communicate. I often hear my single clients and friends exclaiming things like, “He texted me right away!” (after meeting); “The text he sent after our date was SOOOO sweet (thoughtful…polite…and of course, the ‘other’ category).

The Bad: Texting gives instant access, which can be bad. The ‘date’ almost gets taken out of dating, in a way. Now, if you fall victim to it, you are messaging back with ‘Joe’, whom you met out earlier in the night, and Joe’s (and you too, perhaps) feeling mighty relaxed - after a banter of 6 messages, he decides to ask you out via text. And then he sends a text ‘running late.’ After the first date, which you realize was based upon meeting and conversing with him while intoxicated on both wine and ‘text-fever’, neither which are grounded in reality, you don’t return his text the following day. Joe texts, ‘What’s up, sugar? Missing you.’. What happens next can be….

The Ugly: Just like ‘Drunk Dialing’, texting can get dangerously ugly. With or without being fueled by intoxication. It’s a steeper slope than email - you know, that loss of inhibitions we’ve all been on one or both ends of, venting or confessing through written word and the ‘Send’ button. It’s steeper because it’s so accessible and so instant, and you don’t need to formally address anyone, either. Joe may be a real stand up guy (or at least at one time was). Problem is, we begin to get comfy in our habits, and things get reduced to the lowest common denominator. Texting. People are breaking up via texting, people are receiving texts that they shouldn’t be (oops - watch that address book!), and on and on it goes.

Hmmm…feeling a little warmed up.

Feel free to send me your thoughts and comments - I’d love to hear from you!

Do you feel that texting in dating and relating is a hindrence? A benefit? Both?

From my savvy heart to yours,

Leslie

The Savvy Woman’s Love Coach

www.BeLoveSavvy.com

Tags: communication, Dating, dating ettiquette, Leslie Stewart, love coaching, text messaging

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 7:49 am and is filed under Are You Love Savvy?, Dating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.