Text-ing etiquette 101

He texted-ed me! My heart pumps and a rush of adrenaline jolts my vein highway. I spring from the table and leave my hot Kobe beef burgers behind, excusing myself from the uber-cool Indigo Hotel restaurant in Newton, Boston. (http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/in/1/en/hotel/BOSNT/welcome). I had been waiting for a response from my previous text-ed date request to a hot Miami Cuban I had located via MySpace after bumbling an attempt to get his number at a Miami club months before. The rush you feel when getting a much anticipated text is equivalent to getting a Playstation 3 on Xmas morning or finding a 20 dollar bill by the bar at a nightclub.-take your pick. This text read a chilly, "Sure i'll go to dinner with you." My friends understood my rude reaction of jumping from the table since I'd already explained to them the "dating-dance" i was doing with this stud. The "stud" turned out to be a "dud" with the date never gel-lin'. This is why I never date Cubans (I am Cuban) they are too much work. Still -I enjoyed the ride either way.

Queue song "Im tired of using tech-no-logy" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na4x2Uwflmg

Texting etiquette is so new a concept there isn't even a class for it and parents don't include it in their "birds and the bees" speech either. So where does a citizen of the modern wired world find out what is polite or inpolite when it comes to communicating via our ever-important devices that keep us connected at all times? There are no texting 101 classes offered at Miami Dade Community College or even online. You learn from dates who get up from the table and leave you with the bill after you keep looking at your phone for an incoming text while they are telling their life story to you. You learn from the rolling-eyes of your fellow elevator riders on your way up to your office as you nervously text on your Blackberry and your latte is leaking on the floor. You learn from the DMV lady that tells you go to the back of the line if you're gonna be on the phone while she helps you. You pick up the "norm" from the people around you and that can change from city to city. One thing that is easy is to pick up are the hundreds of texting acronyms out there and they spread like a computer virus. They free up hundreds of seconds a year in making our sentences shorter and prevent us from crashing our cars or bumping in to parking meters while we text as fast as we can going from point A to B across America. There are literally hundreds out there and even some that get listed into our dictionary of the English language every now and then. My faves are: OMFG (oh my f*&ing god), LMAO (Laugh my ass off), TTYL (talk to you later), TDTM (talk dirty to me).

Here's the online dictionary for even more fun:

http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/textmessageabbreviations.asp

While the concept of texting is fairly new and used by the younger generation and not-so-much for the older folks (McCain doesn't know how to email or text, Obama loves his Blackberry), I believe it is an ancient practice. The Egyptians used symbols (hieroglyphics) with meanings more complex and expressed much more than just looking at the actual symbol. So I guess we are going back to what the ancients knew, K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid). No one has time these days for full sentences. Thus the beauty of Blogs, they are short, sweet synapses of life. My problem is that I can never keep my blogs down to 400 words or less. I am new at this so wait for it, wait for it, I'll be more brief one day.

Here's some quick shortcuts for the holidays that may come in handy:

Tday- Turkey day (thanksgiving)

NYE -new year's eve

XMAS- do i need to tell u what that means?

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Here's a sample of a text to my fledgling-texter mom and a perfect example of the dangers with texting when someone doesn't understand texting abbreviations:

-----SMS Text-----From: Eric

K will b thr w diego

------SMS Text------From Mom

why aren't you picking me up at the airport? are you mad at me? who is K?

------ SMS Text -----From Eric
Sent: Oct 19, 2008 11:53 AM
Subject: Lmao!!!

Lmao!!! (That means laugh-my-ass-off) kay or K in text language means OK. I have to debrief u on text-speak Its fun and great when u dont feel like talking- And BTW is by the way. BTW- im creating my own blog today- im calling it ERIC IN MIAMI and it will deal with all things related to miami-

love,

ur "wired" son