Sunday, December 12, 2010

Electronic Kisses

A couple of weeks ago, Lauren posted about the conundrum of the texted x.  I hate to copy her - not because it's not a good post but because I vaguely feel like I'm plagiarizing - but, actually, this issue keeps coming up and so I want to comment on it, too.


When you text someone - an acquaintance, a friend, a significant other - you close the text with an x, which technically is the electronic equivalent of a kiss.  After a heated confab with Jon and his sister Ellie, we've come to two conclusions:

1. There is no rule about how many kisses you give to whom.
2. If there were to be a rule, it would be that one gives one x to a close/friendly acquaintance, two to a chum, and three to a significant other.  If you receive an x-less kiss, that generally means the sender is mad at you.  If you send more than three, you're either very keen or asking a favor.

Like Lauren, I'm getting used to attaching xs to texts and emails.  I'm more comfortable with it than I was the last time I lived here, when I felt very prudish about showing such affection.  But I do still get thrown sometimes - like on Friday, when I received a work email from a high net-worth donor whom I had never met that we were inviting to a very posh event.  He responded to my emailed save-the-date with a casual yes followed by an x.  Oh em gee, email etiquette crisis!  Was I supposed to send him an x back?  Or pretend I didn't see it?  Or... man, I was not prepared to deal with errant electronic kisses at 5pm on a Friday afternoon.

How do you handle a texted x?

2 comments:

  1. Hmm. I have never received an x text. Ever. This may mean several things: Everyone is mad at me (hark!); I am friends with mostly Europeans who may not share this trend; I don't text enough.

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  2. maybe they just know that you're American and have altered their texts appropriately? Not sure how it's done in other countries... but I wouldn't worry about it! I think I'm just looking for something to whinge about - how British of me!

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