Texting etiquette and upping your Texting game

A simple guide to becoming a good texter, and getting into more meaning full conversation.

**1. Reaction->question**

The worst texters are the dreaded one word replyers. Don’t be that guy that. When someone only send a “ok” or “lol” it give the other person nothing to go off of, effectively killing the conversation. A simple fix is the old reaction->question format. The reaction being a response to what ever the person said, and then following it up by a question to give the person something to go off of. This shows you’re interested, and are engaged in the conversation.

Example :
Person: “I saw a cool train”
Me:”I love trains! What kind was it?”

**2. You gotta use emojis**

Look, it’s 2022 and the tech overlords gave us a magical tool to convey emotion over text, not using them is limiting yourself and making things harder. A good rule of thumb is anytime your making a joke add an emoji, it just makes things land a little softer. In general emoji are there to help soften your tone, and can radically change how a text is received. I’ve seen the difference between creepy and flirty be a simple 😳 emoji, don’t skip out.

Example:
“That dress looks hot”
“That dress looks 🔥”

**3. Don’t play the mind games**

Don’t try to time your text messages, estimating the prefect time to respond to try and show your not clingy. Just reply to text when you can. It doesn’t help, and actively hinders conversation. If you’re the kinda person who will forget to message back if they don’t do it immediately, it can outright kill a convo. It is generally the best move to reply as soon as you see the text, if some one has an issue with that, That’s a them problem.

**3. The 3 text rule**

Simple sweet and to the point, I don’t text people more then 3 in a row when I’m not getting a response. Depending on the situation I will send 1 text a day to a person, and if I get to 3 with no response, I will stop trying. It is now officially on them to reach out. People can have a bad time, or even a bad week and just not respond, but you also don’t want to harass people.

**4. Know who your texting.**

There are good texter, there are bad texter and everywhere in between, and know who your texting can change alot. I have friends that will just…forget I texted them, the see the message, are busy and forget to reply. So I’ll break the 3 text rule, I can do this because I know them very well, and in some cases… I just asked them if they wanted me to do that, and infact some said yes because the liked having the reminder.

Small note: dating apps can be notoriously bad at sending notifications, it may not be the person but the platform, don’t be afraid to ask if you are getting a weird vibe with the pacing of the convo

**5. Rules when sending memes**

* memes are not a replacements for conversation.
* memes can be used as a reaction, still follow up with a question
* memes are a good way to secretly pad the 3 text rule, so if your friends not replying, a meme can be a stealthy way to ping their phone.
* if you recieve a meme, sending a reaction emoji is better the saying “lol” and is generally good etiquette
* it’s bad form to say “I’ve seen that one” try instead ” I love that meme”