#3. (one word) text messages

Dating nowadays has become tremendously lazy. There seems to be some backward evolution in which casual emails and ungentlemanly calls have steadily replaced face-to-face no-nonsense courting. The recent addition of texting to the picture has further muddled the dynamics of potential romance. Text messaging may be a blessing for casual communication but can alternately be a burden on budding romances, forcing women to lower our expectations. The sad reality is that nowadays, a text message a few days after a good date is sometimes enough to make some women swoon and smile for hours. But there is a floor to my standards. I draw the line at one-word text messages (OWTM).

My cellphone would vibrate with anticipation upon receiving a new text message from a guy I had dinner with. But a little part of me deflates when all I read is “What’s up”. Ok, this is two words but it might as well be OWTM. Don’t I deserve more than some generic salutation, perhaps a “How are you doing today?” My wounded pride forces me to ignore the text because the only thing worse than people who send OWTM are the people who acually respond to them.

There’s really no excuse – OWTM are embarrassingly degrading to the recipient as well as the sender. Getting a message with those non-commital “hey” or “ok” or “lol” is worse than having to deal with people who use emoticons (although admittedly the absolute worse is getting a text with just or .) It says of the sender, I am incapable of making the little extra effort to string a few more words together either because I’m a lazy idiot or you don’t deserve the whole sentence. It just makes both parties look or feel bad. So a word of advice for guilty parties: if you can’t be bothered to send a thoughtful text with a minimum of six words, then don’t bother at all.

Yes, a text message is so gosh darn convenient and easy…just like a facebook message. And that’s exactly why OWTM are illegal in my rulebook for dating.