Smiles

I go out on dates fairly regularly.  And by dates I mean real dates.  Dinner.  Movies.  Normal stuff.  So typically when I start seeing someone, we’ll communicate via text.  Sometimes it’s just for logistical purposes, “I’m running 5 minutes late”, etc.  But often I’ll have a flirty banter back forth with a guy.  This can go on for days, or if you have a deeper connection with someone and enjoy conversing with them, it can go on for months.

The type of texting varies – sometimes it’s innocent.  Sometimes it’s cute.  Sometimes it’s naughty.  Yes – I admit it.  I’ve sexted.  It can be fun. 

The sometimes awkward part is when things move from innocent or cute to naughty.  Face to face it’s fairly easy to read that someone is talking about something of a sexual nature.  But via text (or any other electronic communication) – you can’t always see the tone.  Plus typo’s are fairly common, given the nature of smart phone keyboards.  Autocorrect doesn’t always work in your favor, either.

But something that I’ve been paranoid about for a while is the smile.  :)

Because sometimes I type ;) by mistake.  And that means something totally different than :)    

:) is cute.  It’s innocent.  It says “I like what you just said” or “that was funny”.

But ;) says “Hey.  Let’s drop all the pretense here.  We’re both adults.  We have needs.  Let’s get this ball rolling.”

“I can’t wait to see you tonight.   :)”  and  “I can’t wait to see you tonight.  ;)”  mean two different things.

So if I receive a ;) I never know how to react to it.  Was it a typo?  Does it not mean anything?  Am I supposed to switch gears here?  I could act like it was a :) instead.  That might send the message that I’m not interested.  But what if he didn’t mean ;) the way I think he did?  I might come across as an ass.