LIFESTYLE
SEX + RELATIONSHIPS
“DON’T WANT TO LOOK TOO THIRSTY,” YOU TELL YOURSELF AS YOU COUNT DOWN THE MINUTES BEFORE IT’S SO-
CIALLY ACCEPTABLE FOR YOU TO RESPOND TO A TEXT. SOUND A BIT RIDICULOUS? YEAH, SO ARE SOME OF THE
TEXTING “RULES” LISTED BELOW, BUT TIMES ARE CHANGING. TEXTING IS ONE OF THE UNAVOIDABLE ESSENTIALS
OF MODERN DATING. LIKE ANYTHING ELSE IN LIFE, DIFFERENT PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT RULES FOR TEXTING.
HERE ARE THREE THAT YOU MAY BREAK OR FOLLOW AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.
RULES OF
ENGAGEMENT
THE THREE TEXTING
RULES OF MODERN DATING
By ZAYA ALTANGEREL
Gone are the good old days of waiting by
the phone, willing your new conquest to
call. Nowadays, we spend our free time
strategically calculating the exact length
of time from when you open a text, to
when you finally decide to reply.
The “Don’t respond immediately”
rule. This has got to be one of the most
ridiculous and useless, not to mention
annoying AF, texting rules out there.
For some strange reason, somewhere
along the relatively short period of time
since texting became a thing, we’ve
come to believe that responding to a
message immediately after receiving
it is a big fat NO. Some swear by wait-
ing at least an hour before responding.
Some even go as far as to wait a couple
of days.
I’m not exactly sure how this line of
logic works, but rumor has it that by
purposefully not responding to a text
immediately after reading it, you avoid
looking thirsty.
The “Don’t go overboard
with emojis” rule. When used
wisely, emojis are the perfect
cherry on top of captivating and
witty banter. It helps us clearly
communicate difficult tones of
voice like sarcasm through text,
without accidentally offend-
ing the other party. However,
there comes a certain point in a
conversation where emojis just
stop making sense and become
annoying.
The “Text bombarding” rule. It
can be very uncomfortable when some-
one continues to blow our phone up with
paragraph after paragraph, when we’re
trying our best to politely kill the conver-
sation with an apathetic “lol”, “haha”, or
even a “k” if you’re bold enough.
Unless it’s urgent, if someone has read
your message and is yet to send a proper
reply, just let it be. People need space
to think and breathe sometimes. If they
want to talk to you, they’re bound to
reply sooner or later. You don’t need to
virtually suffocate them.
30 MUSCLE MEMORY
| APRIL/MAY 2018