Misunderstandings in text messages

Text messages are a bit like tiny emotional grenades that we joyfully throw at each other all day long. Its a universal phenomenon that turns our conversations into misunderstandings worthy of a sitcom. Its convenient, modern...and full of traps. A message sent too quickly, another read sideways, and suddenly, everyone starts to interpret, imagine, and invent disaster scenarios. The problem is not the text. Its everything it doesn't have.

A text message is three words without tone, without eye contact, without a smile. No raised eyebrows, no little laugh, not even a sigh. The brain hates emptiness, so it makes something up. And it makes it badly. Very badly. The message says one thing, the reader another, and the responder comes up with a third version. We ended up in trilogy. 

An " Okay" becomes a declaration of war. An endpoint turns into an agressive passive threat. A lack of response is experienced as a betrayal. And a " we'll talk about it later3 sounds like an attempt to escape through a window. The nuances disappear, automatic correctors get involved, and suddenly a banal message becomes a masterpiece of absurdity. Texting is theatre without a set, without costumes, without rehearsals. We guess more than we understand, we interpret more tan we read, and we get angry over sentences that never existed.

Texting is the greatest sociological experiment of our time. My children, my grandchildren, our friends, our relatives...no one escapes it. A misplaced word, a badly chosen emoji, and it's off to an international diplomatic crisis. All this for an "OK" sent between two red lights. Its like asking a blind person to paint a realistic portrait: he will try, but the result may be surprising.

The text message is naked as a worm. So, everyone knits it an emotional sweater based on their current mood. And then there's the autocorrect, that little prankster that turns Till come see you into  Till come see you die. We wanted to sent a cute message but end up with a psychological thriller. Then we wonder why we get " Uh...everything okay at your place". Real communication takes time, patience and sometimes a good phone call. When a text starts to be a Chinese puzzle, its better to pick up the phone. The voice conveys what written words forget, and at least, we avoid starting a world war over single period.