MY VIEW: Text Message Virgin after Divorce?

    Wikka Wooo, Wikka Wooo. What's that? This unfamiliar noise was coming from my friend Tina Cornaccia’s fancy new cell phone, yet it wasn't a call. Looking at her screen she saw a little envelope icon. “Cool! What is it?” she asks me. I look at her like she’s from planet Zork. "It's a text message,” I inform her.

After we figured out how to read it on a phone that probably has a ‘do laundry’ feature, she sees it was from this new guy she had a few beautiful dates with! It said, "Thinkin' of you -- how's things?" You might have thought he sent her a dozen roses by the way it made her day. Now, Tina has been divorced for a year. She’s gorgeous, together, has a great job, a beautiful four-year-old daughter and is a text message virgin. I thought it would be a great time to explore this modern aspect of communication and see how we can use its’ powers.

BABY STEPS

Now what does she do? Return his text with a text? Use this as a green light to give him a call? Where's the rulebook for this new cornerstone of communication? It can seem like a giant black hole out there when it comes to ‘techno relating’. I decided Christina and I should call in the expert. Kristina Grish is the author of ‘The Joy of Text’. She will guide us like a sherpa through the world of virtual connecting. Grish is like the Emily Post for the techno challenged, like Tina and me. Her book spells out the art of text etiquette and if you want to go more hard-core, text seduction. Sassy!    

According to Verizon Wireless as reported by USA Today; more then 90 percent of U.S. wireless customers are equipped to send text. The number sent between these devices has doubled every year, exploding to nearly 7.3 billion messages in June 2005 alone, compared with 2.9 billion in June 2004 and is increasing exponentially. As of July 2006, more than 10 billion text messages are sent every month – and that number has grown by 250 percent each year for the last two years.   

Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, the power has been with us all along. Will we use it wisely?