“What should I text back?” The question every girl has had on her mind when texting that special someone. Usually the girl is texting a crush, who she doesn’t know too well yet, and all she wants to do is make a good impression and not say anything stupid. Taking too long to respond may seem as if you’re not interested, but responding right away could look desperate, and for the iPhone-users, nobody wants to be the person to initiate the typing bubbles and end up not sending anything. It’s just texting, so why is it so hard? Sometimes being yourself through texting is hard to do, and words can be misinterpreted or overanalyzed, so here are a couple tips for common scenarios if you’re wondering what you should say!
The simple “What’s up?”
Don’t just say “nothing,” because it could seem as if you’re uninterested, but don’t explain your whole life’s story either. Keep it simple, but interesting because responding; “just watching TV” every time they ask is boring. For example, if you’re doing homework say something like, “Doing some homework, but I really need a distraction before I go crazy.” This type of response engages a reply, and also shows that you want to have a conversation.
“We should hang out some time”
This statement in a text can be hard to respond to because it’s not exactly a question, and you don’t want to be the psycho “OMG YES!” or the nonchalant, “It doesn’t matter to me.” The best route to go: agree, reinforce the agreement because he worked up the courage to say so, and then further the idea without trying to plan something because after all, it was just a suggestion. Try something along the lines of, “Yeah definitely, what are you doing this weekend?” This allows him to actually plan a day to hang out, and it doesn’t put him on the spot if he already has plans.
“Lol”
This is probably the toughest text message to respond to. The context of the “lol” is a big factor in this, so this tip is for the very basic, average conversation. The goal is to keep the conversation going without being pushy or annoying, and you don’t want to throw something random out there either. Like I said, it’s all about context, so let’s say you just got done telling him something funny that happened, and his response was “lol.” You could do the sarcastic, yet funny approach by saying, “Yep, so that’s my life,” or “So that’s where I’m at.” To further the conversation you could say, “Yeah, so did you have an eventful day as well?” or “So what did you do today?”
The infamous “K”
The only tip for this is to not respond at all. We all know that “k,” is the quickest way to end a conversation, so the person using it probably doesn’t want to chat anymore. Although it is disappointing and a little rude, respect their space, and they will respect you for it!
If they admit to liking you too quickly
This can be a little awkward and hard to respond to because sometimes we don’t know how we feel quite yet, but we don’t want them to think we’re uninterested. Make sure you don’t take too long to answer because he had enough courage to speak up, and could be anxiously awaiting your answer. Also, you shouldn’t avoid or change the subject because it could seem like you’re trying to blow them off. The best thing to do is to compliment him and show that you have further interest in getting to know him. Try something like, “You are so sweet, I can’t wait to hang out again.”
If you find out you’re going to the same place but not together
As strange as it sounds, this could happen quite often living in such a small town like Mount Pleasant. Let’s say you asked your crush what they were doing for the weekend and he said he was going to the Blackstone Bar. You realize that you and all of your friends were planning to go there also. You don’t want it to seem like you’re trying to be where he is or that you’re intentionally trying to force a hang out. Try saying, “Yeah, a couple of my friends are going up there, but I don’t know what I’m doing yet.” This tells him that you might be there, but you also might have other plans, so, it won’t be weird if you run into him!
For any other awkward text you might encounter, you’re on your own! No conversations are cookie-cut, and there’s really no way to predict what someone is going to say. Just remember to keep it simple- short and sweet is always a good route! Another little tip: don’t overload on the smiley faces and emoticons/Emojis! They’re funny and there are so many to choose from, but keep in the mind that they’re not your best friend and may not understand the meaning of the winking, tongue face.