Love Texts

July 24, 2005 3:21 PM

Forget love letters, it's love texts that are all the rage now! "I turned off the phone, dumbfounded. How had we managed to speed through all the stages of an actual relationship almost solely via text message? I'd gone from butterflies to doubt to anger at his name on the screen, before we even knew each other. That was it, I decided: no more text-message flirtations for me. From now on I'd stick to more old-fashioned ways of getting to know a guy. Like e-mail."
posted by JPowers (23 comments total)

That guy seemed pretty creepy.

He didn't even know her, and was all up in her stuff.

How do people get so clingy without even getting to know each other?
posted by swerdloff at 3:31 PM on July 24, 2005

Im writing bout u in teh nytimes ;-)
posted by Saucy Intruder at 3:42 PM on July 24, 2005

"Modern Love" sucks again.
posted by delmoi at 3:50 PM on July 24, 2005

lol saucy

y do ppl write like this? doesnt predictive txt make real english faster? lol
posted by grouse at 4:16 PM on July 24, 2005

böring
posted by Edible Energy at 4:23 PM on July 24, 2005

I second what delmoi said. Could we get one Modern Love article that didn't sound like it was written by a 13 year old girl? "Like, oh my gosh, this creepy guy texted me, lol! Text messaging is for losers!" Gimme a break.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:27 PM on July 24, 2005 [1 favorite]

I'm slightly bitter that I'm pretty sure I will never get a real, paper love letter ever again. I'll just have spelling error and internet abbrevation riddled IM logs, emails and text messages.
posted by piratebowling at 4:30 PM on July 24, 2005

I once sent a girl a "I like you letter" and a mixtape, I later heard from her friends that she was wierded out by anyone that would take so much time to write a letter, but that she really liked the cd (story of my life).
posted by cyphill at 4:49 PM on July 24, 2005

All in favor of a moratorium on the weekly posting of dreck from the Sunday NY Times Style Section?
posted by MaxVonCretin at 5:06 PM on July 24, 2005

damn its like every first date i've ever been on...
posted by vagus at 5:09 PM on July 24, 2005

Max: Aye!
posted by Edible Energy at 7:17 PM on July 24, 2005

I enjoyed this post.
posted by alms at 7:19 PM on July 24, 2005

"Will do where will we meet? will be a little while still though sexy! You have any ideas? want you standing out in the rain with nothing on"

-Shane Warne. Australia's greatest, and clearly the most romantic, love texter.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 7:25 PM on July 24, 2005

Jeez, do people not know how to interact with one another anymore? I can't believe people have relationships like this.
posted by nightchrome at 7:34 PM on July 24, 2005

I'd be okay with it if the NY Times sold the Style Section to New York Magazine. I really would.
posted by psmealey at 8:15 PM on July 24, 2005

Okay, everyone. Stop. Open your mobile phones and figure out if it has T9 predictive. It does? Good. You don't know how to use it? Sit down for 15 minutes or so and learn -- it's easy to master. Once that's done, it will be infinitely easier to type "you" than "u" and "are" instead of "r." Once you're texting in full sentences, even if you are a spooky-ass stalker, you'll at least sound literate. Hell, in proper english, this fellow might have actually sounded charming.

Same goes for you, Miss Barron.

And MaxVonCretin: Yes.
posted by VulcanMike at 8:34 PM on July 24, 2005

I've always hated text messaging because I generally like spelling out things. However, please correct me if I am wrong, but don't abbreviations such as "u" and "r" save money since some phone services charge by the amount of space/memory a message takes up?

I'm with alms on this one. It might not be "best of the web," but I generally enjoy learning about such things to feel better about myself...oops, did I say that out loud?
posted by state fxn at 8:59 PM on July 24, 2005

However, please correct me if I am wrong, but don't abbreviations such as "u" and "r" save money since some phone services charge by the amount of space/memory a message takes up

Not in this part of the world at least. With our GSM providers, each SMS can be up to 160 characters long, and it costs the same whether it's 1 character or 160 characters.

But I hate SMS-speak. Absolutely, passionately, hate it. On my blog, I have a comment policy that any comment with SMS lingo will be deleted irrespective of content.
posted by madman at 11:52 PM on July 24, 2005

So what happens when she finds out about aim and the ability to text message at high speed... or worse yet, her potential hook up gets her to direct connect for photos and then sends her a picture of her location via satellite, with an arrow saying wish i was here......

technology changes things...... OOOOOHHHHHHH
posted by sourbrew at 12:15 AM on July 25, 2005

On my blog, I have a comment policy that any comment with SMS lingo will be deleted irrespective of content.

That's a good policy.
posted by grouse at 4:24 AM on July 25, 2005

Technology helps us identify the weirdos faster. I think we should be grateful.
posted by JanetLand at 7:07 AM on July 25, 2005

I liked the post. It's cute and inoccuous, but I'm fin with that. MeFi would be horribly dry if it was nothing but serious posts.

I hate SMS speak with a passion, and don't think I've ever sent a text-message in my life. And T9 Mode was completely incomprehensible to me - I always thought it was some type of computer code that wasn't meant for casual users [like the ASCII characters] . [sidenote to VulcanMike - for a lot of us it was not intuitive at all].

OK, so I googled T9, found an easy little tutorial, & now it makes complete sense. Shoots, I might even be able to text now, just like the kids do.
posted by kanewai at 4:51 PM on July 25, 2005

Told you so!
posted by VulcanMike at 7:49 PM on July 25, 2005