Texting in Social Situations

Social Situation [soh-shuh-l sich-oo-ey-shuh-n]
Knowing what type of speech is appropriate in different social situations and having the vocabulary we need to speak confidently where ever we are can make us more self assured and comfortable speakers.

When people text during social situations, then I find that it's not social at all, therefore it can not be labelled as a social situation. Most of the time, people pull out their phones during awkward social situations because it's...well, awkward. I think that when people pull out their phones and start texting during awkward silences, it makes everything even more awkward and silent since they won't be contributing to the conversation anymore.

However, I know people can multitask, so I personally don't find it rude when people text while I'm talking. Even though they're not looking, I know that a part of them is still listening to me. On the other hand, this is not always the case with some people. Sometimes, they only focus on their texting and don't pay attention to what I'm talking about. So I shall revise my original statement and say that "Help is given at Hogwarts to those who deserve it." it is acceptable to text while I'm talking, as long as part of you is still listening to me.


In regards to texting in general, there is such a thing as texting improperly. As a bonus, I have come up with five rules for proper texting etiquette:

1. D0N'T TYP3 L1K3 TH15. If you couldn't read what that said, then I rest my case. This kind of typing is really annoying, hard to read, and it's so...90s. On top of that, it takes you a lot longer to type since most keyboards will require you to press a "shift" key before you input the numbers. Honestly, no one benefits from this type of typing (Ha, see what I did there?).
2. DON'T TYPE IN ALL CAPITALS. Did you just read that as a shout? No? Well, that's how I read capitalized sentences. Even if the person doesn't even mean it to sound like shouting, that's how I read it and how I will always read it. Also it's hard to read on small screens because a single word takes up the entire screen and you have to continually scroll down. 
3. There's a difference between Your and You're. Didn't know that? Well, now you know. 'Your' is used in the case of possession. Such as "Your blog is so cool, Izza" or "I like your blog". 'You're' is a contraction of 'You' and 'Are'. Such as "You're an awesome blogger, Izza". D'aww, thanks you guys.
   BONUS: there's a difference between Their, They're, and There. I'll not go into that one much, but you can all just Google it.
   
4. Dont. Send. After. Every. Word. There should be a filter that inhibits people to send more than 5 texts every minute. I actually do know people who send me a message after every word. Sometimes they send me texts that only contain an emoticon. I find it incredibly annoying, even with my threaded SMS! Imagine how much more annoying it is for people who have to open up each message individually...
5. If you don't plan to reply, don't text first. This should be simple, but it's amazing how many people forget to text back. I mean, the person you just texted took time out of their probably very busy schedules to reply to the text you randomly sent them. The least you could do is reply to them. Even if it's just a "thanks".