Text Sex: The Latest Wave of Courtship

By riceevans (Chief Contributor)
Tags: Motorola, Franklin Street, The Hookup Spectrum

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Created: 07/23/2008
7:42 PM

Now Playing: I've Got Your Number - Passion Pit

On college campuses across the nation, you'll be hard-pressed to amble across any lush green quad between Introduction to Economics and grabbing sushi with the cute guy/girl in your dorm without seeing at least 1 out of every 5 college-aged kids walk by, cell phone proudly out and active, barely visible beneath hasty thumbs.

Now, I find myself wondering, "to whom are all of these people sending short electronic messages?" Possibly their mothers, cousins, best friends, professors with whom they are having torrid affairs; but more often than not, it seems as though they are texting the college equivalent of a significant other. More often than not: "A Hookup."

Meeting a random person at a party and subsequently "hooking up" with them is hardly a new phenomenon, but with the advent of texting, many students feel that the post-coital maladroitness disappates within electronic messages.

Says one UNC - Chapel Hill sophomore, "I actually didn't even have texting until halfway through my [freshman] spring semester and before that, things were waaaay [sic] awkward when I would run into guys I had met at parties." Though she prefers to remain anonymous, Ms. Tarheel said emphatically that once she did get text capabilities, her flirting indices were off the charts.

"Boys from fall semester would text me and want to hang out," says Ms. Tarheel. "Text-flirting is so easy! You don't have to be nervous or shy at all!"

Having entered the second half of 2008, I suppose the sky is the limit for romance. I myself have found that texting expands one's social sphere tenfold. Truth: my ex-boyfriend did not even have texting. Note the "ex" factor.

P.S. Check out the links for a visually interactive parallel!!