Textually Frustrated

"Textually Frustrated"

When texting with someone over IM or SMS that takes too long to reply leaving you waiting and frustrated.

"He takes forever; texting with Bill leaves me textually frustrated."

urbandictionary.com

I've become addicted to urbandictionary.com, mainly because most of the people I am currently working with are far younger than me and use so much slang/jargon/internet speak that I feel like I need a translator on hand at times. The word/phrase of the day comes in quite handy at times.

My latest favorite term is "textually frustrated." I find that this comes into play more often with people my age (38 for a couple more weeks) or older who got onto the texting bandwagon far too late and are woefully inadequate at it. I have been dating a few people here and there, two of which are close to 50. Both are fairly savvy when it comes to computers and cell phones, but neither of them is very good at texting. I was attempting to plan a date with one of them and asked him when he would be free. His response was that he was out of town the next couple of weekends. Confused, I asked him if he was not available during the week. He responded that yes he was. So again, resisting the urge to smash the phone, I asked him if he wanted to get together next week. His response: yes. At that point, I was beyond being textually frustrated. After taking a 10 minute break to get my heart rate down, I replied that if he was trying to frustrate me he was doing a great job and that I told him I was available all next week and that the ball was in his court, and if he wanted to see me he could set a date and time. He finally responded with a day and time. Since then, I have avoided texting with him altogether, as it is much easier to just pick up the phone and call him.

The other guy I am dating is even worse. You will be in the midst of a conversation regarding making plans for dinner/movie/etc. and he just stops responding. Even calling him afterwards leads directly to voicemail. Knowing his personality, I just assume he started staring at the phone in disbelief and left it sitting somewhere he didn't have to deal with it, like a crying child.

I think I may have to institute a rule that all potential dates need to pass a simple communication test before proceeding to the first date. It should prevent needless textal frustration.