Society loves to argue whether technology is a good or bad influence on how we humans communicate. It’s not always comfortable to be squeezed together between words, especially when cyber-bullying is so easy to execute from the comfort of a keyboard, but in some ways all this digital closeness is better than sex. Why? Because after you get some you can immediately text your friend who lives a state away and divulge all of the filthy and probably comical details. Hell, you can even send a bra and panty photo to fish for a friendly compliment.
It’s the Great Digital BFF Renaissance declares New York Magazine, and they’re right. Women who were once high school or college students together, close enough to chat every day, have grown into adults with careers, kids and partners. Life got in the way of connecting with a phone call or a coffee. However with the ease of a group text message, busy ladies can reconnect with their crew as simply as if they were changing the channel on their television.
When my generation moved out of the dorms, technology developed to allow us to live in a perpetual virtual slumber party, gossiping with all our friends. The result may actually be more intimate than the face-to-face alternative — without camera phones, I wouldn’t have seen my friend’s lip-biting sexy face.
As a Californian-cum-New Yorker who lives on the other side of the country from her family and friends, I text my Cali friends all the time. When I realized that my Apple messaging client Jabber could pull in iPhone messages along with google chats, I was giddy. "I can text my best friend at home between Jezebel emails and without even picking up my phone!" I thought. Life was suddenly amazing. (Of course my bestie was less than thrilled, and responded one day asking, "What’s with the 5 a.m. texts, dude?" But she loves me and my messages, I know it.)
Some people might think texting is just for melancholy teenagers, but who knows who and what that soccer mom in line behind you at Trader Joe's is typing into her iPhone. If we can make technology work for us, it’s a win.
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