Wednesday, January 18, 2012

L' Amour Digitale

So...
Love in the 21st century...

I just spent another 20 minutes helping a friend to try figure out what a text message meant that a guy she likes sent to her. That's 20 minutes for this particular text message...one of many.
Which made me wonder: isn't the texting thing more of a problem than a communication tool when it comes to love?
I mean, texts can mean different things depending on the person who reads or writes them.
If you're in a grumpy mood an exclamation mark can feel too forceful, while if you're in a happy mood an exclamation mark can mean utter joy.
Love is complicated as it is, but I just get the distinct feeling that some of the digital stuff isn't making it any easier.

I guess I kinda miss the days when you called a boy, only to hang up, when he picked up the phone and said "Yes?".
No redial options, no numbers in screens...just that...
The tension and excitement when it happened to be him on the other side, and you finally picked up the courage to say: "Hey, it's me...I don't know if you remember me, but..."

These days you have it all: each other's email, mobile, Twitter, Facebook, Wordfeud, IM and Skype accounts. Where do you start?
And: sometimes somebody can write awesome emails, but then you meet them...and...well....

Another friend of mine spent two weeks chatting with a guy she met through a dating website.
He was friggin' awesome! He was in a band she likes, cute, funny, had similar likes and interests...they texted and chatted to 4 am every day, those two weeks.
Until she felt it was time for a face-to-face chat.
So she playfully suggested to meet.
He started backing off.
Suddenly becoming awkward and weird, and less and less communicative.
Until she got so fed up with it, she sent him a long email basically saying: "DUDE WHAT THE FUCK?!?!"
Then....after a few days...he answered.
Turns out: he was a she, and she had pretended to be this person all along.
She claimed it was research for a book...
Yeah, right.
Needless to say, my friend contacted the real guy's management AND the people of the dating site and let them know what this person was doing.

I dunno...
Call me old fashioned...but after a couple of disastrous internet romances, and to and froh texting, and analyzing...I think I'm more of a "Hey, it's me...I don't know if you remember me, but..." kinda gal.
I'd rather bump into someone in a museum queue in the rain...


No comments: