Six years ago, I sent my first text message. It was an amazing experience, albeit one that transpired on an unsophisticated phone which resembled a brick. Text messaging taps into the fundamental need of humans to communicate with one another--and now we don't even have to see the person we want to speak with or utilize our vocal chords in any way. Some feel this is the death of human interaction, and while I wouldn't go as far as that, I do admit that the realm of texting is not without its evils.

For one, the availability of text messaging makes an actual phone call a much more severe action. You must really, REALLY want to speak with someone if you decide to find their name in your contacts and hit send as opposed to punching a quick sentence or two during your lunch hour. And when it comes to dating, text messaging only adds more mystery into the already complicated process. For example, if you receive a text message from someone you like, shouldn't you wait a bit to respond as to not seem desperate? How long should you wait? Not too long, if you want to maintain a conversation. But if you respond immediately you might give the idea that you're waiting next to your phone with nothing better to do. Then again, aren't we always carrying our phones around? It's frustrating when people don't answer their phones nowadays. It's not like they can claim they were running errands. No, everyone is available all the time. But back to the topic at hand. Should a girl text a guy she likes or is this too straightforward? And what if the unthinkable happens---you send a text and the person never answers? Then you're left wondering if your message never got sent, if the textee saw your message, smiled and meant nothing by the lack of response, or if, dare I say it, the person didn't want to respond. By far that is the worst torture one can endure--trying to predict what is happening on the other side of the cell phone tower. Members of the older generation always scoff and say, "Why can't you just call the person?" What they fail to realize is that most texts don't contain life-altering information--they're merely bits and pieces of someone's day. You may text someone to tell them something reminded you of them, or if you pass an ex in the hall, or ask what they're doing tonight.

Texting opens up a world of convenience and uncertainty. Are we spending our lives living vicariously through Facebook and words on a tiny screen? We seem to know everything about all of the people in our lives--we can track every party they've been to, see all the clubs they belong to, chart the discussion between two "walls." We know people before having met them, and this is sometimes dangerous. We make assumptions, we think a person is a certain way because of the digital ID they have presented. This too affects dating. Instead of moving on with your life and forgetting about an ex, the temptation to check on this person's page several times day, monitoring all females who make contact with him is often too great to ignore. Now our relationships from the past twist and slither into our present, perpetually making themselves known. There's no way to completely forget about an undesired person or event because the evidence is always there, always floating around in cyberspace, waiting for us to view it once more. Technology has not introduced anything new to us; it's merely exploiting our social human nature in a way that has never been done before. In ten years we won't hang pictures on our walls, we'll just call up our Facebook pages. Our memories have been converted into numbers and pixels, they don't exist in a world outside of our computers. And even though online communication has the ability for people to maintain contact where it was previously difficult to do so, we're more aware of each other than ever before. That pervasive knowledge is at times haunting. Sometimes it's better not to know.