Texting is a super convenient way of keeping in touch with our friends and partners when we’re not in the same place. It makes it easy to make plans, have a quick catch-up, and keep each other informed when we’re too busy to actually talk. But is texting taking over our romantic relationships a little too much? A new study says yes.
- We’re texting more than we’re actually talking. According to a survey performed by Typing.com, a whopping 55.6% of couples interact with their partner more via text than they do in person. About 14% say they text and talk in person equally, while only 30% actually have real life convos more than they do digital ones with their partner. That’s crazy!
- This isn’t down to long-distance relationships. It obviously makes sense that couples who aren’t in the same physical location would need to resort to texting as their main form of communication, and 89.9% of them do. However, for those of us who live with or closeby to our partners, 48% of us still prefer to text over chatting face-to-face.
- Even living together doesn’t help matters. Of the respondents that lived together. an extremely high 49.3% said they still text more than they talk. Sure, we’re all guilty of shooting off an iMessage to our partner that dinner is ready when they’re in another part of the house, but that’s supposed to be an occasional lazy move, not the norm!
- There are some advantages to texting over talking. The survey participants revealed what they considered to be the upsides to digital communication with their partners, the most popular answer being the ease of reaching the person quickly, the ability to make plans quickly, the ease of checking in throughout the day, and the ability to decide when to respond. All of those reasons are pretty understandable, right?
- However, texting over talking comes with some downsides too. Those involved with the survey admitted that texting had no shortage of cons, the biggest being how difficult it is to properly convey emotion/intent behind a message, the fact that communication can take way longer than just picking up the phone and calling (or asking something face to face), and the lack of boundaries in communication.
- Good morning/good night texts matter. When couples are apart, it’s always nice to send/receive a text as you’re starting and ending your day. In long-term relationships, 51.2% of women and 42.5% of men enjoy receiving them. They become extremely important in long-distance relationships, with 62.6% of couples desiring them alongside the 43.9% of couples who are normally in the same place.
- Book-length texts aren’t a bad thing. While we’re generally advised to avoid sending lengthy texts, the survey shows that a good portion of men and women actually enjoy receiving all your thoughts in one go as opposed to fragmented across multiple messages. Roughly 52% of men and 59.5% of women are all about the long texts, so let your fingers fly!
- We don’t like going too long without contact. We all lead busy lives and we can’t be in touch with our partners 24/7, but exactly how long are we comfortable with not talking? Women reported being OK with 13.1 hours of no-contact, while men stretched it slightly longer to 14.6 hours on average. Surprisingly, it’s married couples who were least comfortable with long gaps of no contact, with the average being 12.3 hours. For people who were simply in a relationship but not married, that was a bit higher at 15.7 hours.
- How many texts is too many? We’re always afraid of seeming clingy with our partners by texting too much, but how many messages is too many? The average is 6.3 for women and 6.5 for men, so go ahead and hit up that double text.
