Expressing Meaning Through Text

Text messaging, as discussed prior relies on many things to get its point across. However what is interesting is how the text itself can be manipulated to create new meanings. There are several examples of this, creating pictures through different letters and symbols, ex: <3> back and forth (yes of course it was at work!). Somehow we started texting back and forth really lame jokes. Jokes are interesting in themselves because they do typically rely on more than just words. Here is an example of one of the jokes that my co-worker sent me (in the original format):

Bear walks into a bar, bartender says what'll u have? Bear says
gimme a....................beer. Bartender says why the big pause?

Obviously this joke is a pun, a pretty bad pun at that. However it is fascinating to see this joke written out. For one the text is manipulated in a way that shows a long pause in breath. One would assume that my c-w was breathing normally while he typed out this text, however it allows the reader to hear/grasp the concept that there should be a pause.

Plus it is quite interesting that he chose to spell out "pause" as the last word of the joke. "Paws" would have been equally funny. When we hear a pun it is never deciphered which spelling is put to use. My c-w made the decision to use the spelling of "pause" indicating the space in the text, allowing the reader the option to re-read it with "paws." Perhaps it would have been more ironic to use the spelling "paws" to go against the space in text. Either way it is a prime example of how people can manipulate text to get their message to the receiver of a text.

Text Based Expresion

Text messaging is the next generation of instant messaging. You can carry your conversation any where instead of sitting at a computer and chating. However one concern with a text based communication is trying to express yourself while having a conversation. People take both tone of voice and body language for granted until they try to express themselves in a purely text-based medium.

While using text messaging texters need to be aware of each others personalities, how they would typically respond while face to face, and the use of text. To further illustrate this I will simulate an exchange of text messages between two people.

Debbie: Do you want to go to the Watering Hole and get a beer tonight?
Harriet: Yah ok...I'll jump in my car now!

This conversation can be read at face value: Harriet is excited about going to the Watering Hole and is leaving to meet Debbie right away. However, anyone that personally knows Harriet is perfectly aware that she despises going the Watering Hole, and her response should not be read as enthusiasm but pure sarcasm.

Harriet's response is relying on the fact that Debbie knows Harriet's personality; this response would not work well with someone that does not know Harriet well. There are other ways to further express personality through text messaging, which will be explored further in upcoming blogs. However it is important for the average texter to be aware of how they want their text message to read and how it can be potentially read.

My First Text Message

The first text message I ever received was sometime in 2001, on my old nokia; the nokia that everyone and their mom owned. Anyway, my phone was upstairs charging, and I started to hear loud strange beeps. I had never heard the phone make that noise before, and was confused. I should state that, at this point in time, I had never even heard of text messaging. I looked at my phone, expecting a missed call, figuring I had accidentally changed the settings. Yet, low and behold, it said I had a message, from my friend Breezy. Yes, Breezy, if you're reading this, you popped my texting cherry. I'm not even really sure what it said, other than a possible: "What's up?" or something of that nature. Unsure of how to proceed I called her to see what this message was exactly, and that was when my eyes were opened to texting.

I didn't exactly jump feet first into this type of communication. Worried about prices of each text message, I think on the plan I had at the time it was something like .40. Slowly my affinity for texting grew, so much so that I'm sending and receiving thousands of text messages a month.

I never thought much about how much I rely on texting as a form of communication until people began to point out that they didn't need to clean out their "full inbox" every day. That brings me to the point of this blog. This blog will be looking at text messaging from all sorts of angles and how it has changed our forms of communication.