You are sitting in the office or walking down the street, and you feel the buzz. Someone has just texted you. Now you have to immediately take your phone out and check who it is to see if it is an important message. It turns out it wasn’t that important, and now you must put it away and resume what you were doing. Maybe there should be some unwritten rules on how to text someone in order to avoid inconveniences and confusion. So here are some unwritten rules I have written down for you to improve your texting etiquette-

  • Who are you texting?- Make sure you take a second to think about who you are texting. Do you really need to text them? Is this something that could wait? Do you feel comfortable enough in your relationship with them that you can cause them an inconvenient moment?
  • When are you texting?- After establishing that this person is someone you feel comfortable texting make sure to think about their time zone and schedule. Are you texting them when they could be asleep? Could they be in the middle of their work day or in class? These are things that you need to consider before launching that buzzing message.
  • What language are you using?- Do you hate getting those texts with texting language with which you are unfamiliar? Those shortened words that make no sense or acronyms that could stand for several different things can be confusing for some people. Then you just have to explain yourself on a subsequent text taking up way more time than what you initially saved.
  • Would it be better discussed over the phone?- When you text you lose empathy and personal dynamics that can still be expressed through voice. Evaluate if the message you are about to text should be spoken and not typed.
  • Remember you can’t take back a text- When you type something you have to make sure you are being clear. Also, you can’t take back what you text so if you are emotional take a moment to calm down and reevaluate what it is that you want to say.