Have you ever had a fight over text messaging?

I had. And more than once.

Here is an example.

My friend was supposed to join me and my other friend for drinks on a Saturday night. She had said in advance that she had another engagement to go to prior to our meeting, so she was meeting us late. But when the time came, she got caught up at that other party and texted me that she was just going to stay there. I texted her in a short message that it wasn’t a big deal.

Then next morning, I was expecting her to contact me, to ask how my evening went, and she didn’t. I got upset cause I thought she didn’t care.

I texted her and asked if everything was OK, and she responded that all was well.

Another day went by and we hardly communicated, obviously being upset with one another.

Until we spoke on the phone and straightened things out.

Well, where things went wrong?

I say the problem was with the vehicle in our conversation –the text messaging. She thought I was upset with her for not showing up, when I wasn’t. I thought she was ignoring me, when she wasn’t. Assumptions, assumptions, assumptions. And all triggered by the format of a short text message.

Would the misunderstanding happen if we just spoke on the phone? No way, I’m sure.

So much gets lost in translation and so much is open to interpretation in text messages, that it is influencing how we communicate and how we react to each other. I’m not saying that text messaging is bad for relationships overall, but in this particular instance – there is a weakness.

Have you had an experience like that before?