Text Dating

Disclaimer: This is a non-running related post. If you have come in search of running related ramblings you will be severely disappointed, please feel free to utilize the red "X" in the top right corner should you need to. Otherwise settle in for a rather humorous, or at least I think so, post about dating...

So last week, Tall Guy Surfing emailed me requesting a copy of a Myspace post I had written a few years back about "Text Dating" he wanted to share with his recently single friend who has been a long time removed from the dating world. After I dug it up and sent it over I re-read it and decided I'd share it with ya'll. Now I know most of you are coupled up but there must be a few of you out there still single or that can relate to the scenario I am about to set up for you; At the time my roomie and I were simultaneously text dating and I wrote this "Text Dating Guide" as comic relief for our equally frustrating dating (or lack there of rather) situations...


Category: Romance and Relationships

Text-Dating: The new alternative for conventional Dating


Texting; we all do it and chances are you do it in an embarrassingly high amount. In lieu of sending emails, actually calling someone, or (gasp) talking face to face it seems everyone has become addicted to text messaging…. So it's no surprise that text-dating has become the new dating alternative. Look around it's everywhere, spend one evening at a bar, club or even a house party and you will find any number of people tucked away in corners texting away…

After countless discussions on the subject I will now reveal the Steps of Text-Dating as determined by me and a couple of my friends…

Scenario: You meet a guy, out and about downtown, he buys you a drink, you dance and by the end of the night you're swapping digits… Instead of wondering if guy in question will wait 3 days to call, your phone springs to life with that all too familiar sound that indicates you have a new message…

"Had fun 2nite! Ur hott! ;)"

or something along those lines, usually with spelling errors cuz let's face it, at 2:15am no one spells anything right….

You have now entered Stage 1 of Text-Dating: “Breaking the Ice Texting”

It's a few days later, maybe you've talked on the phone maybe you haven't but chances are you'll get a text somewhere along the lines of "Hey, what are you doing tonight?"

I call this Stage 2 of Text-Dating: “Text Inviting”

(i.e. You have nothing to say, maybe you're not a phone person but you wouldn't mind hanging out. Solution: Shoot them a text! You avoid strained phone conversation and direct rejection if they're not interested!)

It's now been a couple more days and it's the weekend; you're not hanging out together and yet it's after midnight, your 5 or 6 beers have caught up to you and there you are texting back and forth with said guy… maybe to meet up later, maybe because you didn't meet anyone that night and you're using him as fall back to keep you entertained while you're friend chats up a handsome guy at the bar who had an extremely disappointing wing-man… either way the texts are flying…. misspelled of course… Hey it's better than drunk dialing your Ex right?!?

This my friends is called Stage 3 of Text-Dating: “Drunk Texting”

This is where things start to pick up; the drunken texting leads way to regular texting, say you're bored at work and you receive a text asking how your day is going or has some random statement that has nothing to do with anything but gives you a good laugh. That little "beep" of the phone starts to become the highlight of your day….

Caution: Now entering Stage 4 of Text-Dating: “Daily Texting”

At this point you are where conventional daters would be wondering where things are going… he's texting daily, so you're obviously on his mind, the texts are cute and leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, normally this would be because of a phone call… but not for you, Ms. Text Dater, for you it's all about cheesy messages using numbers in place of words and symbols that create facial expressions. Dates do not end after you say goodnight, they continue well on into the night with texting… When you're out and about with friends you start getting yelled at for texting him all night… You may even be using "going to the bathroom" as an excuse to text unnoticed and uninterrupted…

There's no turning back now, you are at Stage 5 of Text-Dating: “Text Relationship”

It is at this point that you must decide to finally have a normal functioning relationship that involves less texting and more actual relating or things will just fizzle out and in due time you will be left alone with an empty inbox.

So that being said, is Text-Dating effective? Maybe to some extent, but is it the wave of the future of dating? I hope not. Waiting around for a text message that can be easily misinterpreted due to lack of proper communication can be the cause of considerable grief and let's face it, how much can you really get to know someone that communicates solely through the punching of buttons???

So there you have it, some non-running related ramblings about dating, circa 2007. What do you think? Have you ever text dated?