How important is text communication for you in a relationship/friendship?

@AveryLove

How important is text communication for you in a relationship/friendship? (calls/texts)

I really like this question and I can't help but wonder why I never really thought about it. I'm going with the assumption that this is meant for real life relationships and friendships, excluding long distance and online. For me, Text Communication isn't that important. What I mean by this isn't that it's pointless or waste of time, I just feel meeting in person is far more important. Texting is so easy and it feels like it really connects two people when in reality it's just easier to send a "Hey, I thought about you today" than to say it when you are face to face with someone (if you're anything like me that is). In texts you can never exactly feel or show your concern. I know we all have virtual connections here and I'm not saying they don't mean anything, they mean a lot. However, I have always felt the need to consider the possibility that how different I would be if I were there in person with this online friend. I might have acted differently, I might not have to worry about using too many or too less emojis, I might be able to just comfort them, hug them. Maybe that would have been the best thing I can do. Sometimes our members may feel we aren't being genuine or we might think our member isn't opening up enough, when in reality we are just missing the sense of touch, the vision, that really connects people.

If we're not considering real life and talking about long distance or online friends then texting may be one of our best bets. Texting is supposed to connect people who are away, who cannot directly talk to you, someone you cannot see. I'm neither against it nor in favour of it. But that's just me, I guess haha. I would love to know what other people think.

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For me, the questions is not so much whether or not it is important, but how it's done.

In my posting / texting / chatting ... I tend to make liberal use of emojis to (1) clarify my post and (2) show the other person how I'm feeling when I am saying something because they would otherwise not be able to tell since we're not face-to-face.

For example ... if I were to post "Thanks" but not put a icon after it, unless the other person has met me in real life and is very familiar with how I talk, they would not be able to tell from just "Thanks" whether I mean it or not, whether I am truly happy, being sarcastic, etc.. Of course, it's important to use the right amount, also ... because using too much can come across as contrived (or even fakey), such as when you're baking a cake and put way too much sugar in.

That being said ... I prefer to err on the side of using too many than none at all, just saying.

As someone used to online relationships, I think it's hard to stay friends with someone i can't connect with via texting, mainly because i usually ask to meet up with people via text. If i get the feeling that they don't want to talk on text, the odds of me offering to meet irl is slim, and the person eventually fades away. For those relationships that become entirely online, text can become the heart and soul of the relationship, so learning the other's texting patterns and the things they say to communicate their emotions is really important (for example, knowing when they're being sarcastic, and having a clear mutual and verbally agreed upon understanding that when we're mad we say so, and hints and clues are banned) I stay in touch with my friends via text, and i feel much closer to a professor who can be casual and friendly in text and email. This may be part of why i can feel closer to my dad since he and i text somewhat often, but my mother only texts when I'm away from home and she's angry at me. I find it difficult to explain my deeper thoughts and feelings out loud, so sometimes it's even gotten to a point where the only way I've been able to say anything at all was by texting my boyfriend when he was right in front of me, or sending my parents an email about why i thought i needed to be tested for a learning disability even though they were one room away.

Essential...😔

@AveryLove

Hi Avery,

Text communication is very important to me as most of my friends are away and rely much on Whatsapp for communication.

But i am miserable in doing that.