I feel people often use electronic communications to help build an image of themselves that they want portrayed but it may differ significantly from how they really are. Although at first a person enjoys such control, eventually it will lead to problems associated with a lack of authenticity. For example, even though I am all for rational and calm communication and encourage my clients to take deep breaths and gather thier thoughts before verbally addressing a conflict, people's emotions may become too void of emotion in an e-mail. A person might be enraged but type a matter of fact e-mail depriving the reciever of knowing them in a more real way ( hearing a bit of distress in thier voice).

I dispise Myspace for this reason. People lose themselves in fake, self-indulgent advertising of how they want to be, not what they really are. Some of my friends pages would suggest they are popular rock stars with lives so extrodinary common folk should look upon them with awe. In reality, these peoples lives are quite mundane. They aren't so special and yet as a friend, I find it a shame that they can't embrace being special to those who truely know them, and have that be enough.

The author obviously has a personal issue with texting and is projecting it as a problem with other people. I grew up in the information age, and texts are not a lack of expression but a different means of expression. When a person texts (or doesn't), the jokes they make, photos they share, etc. My boyfriend and I recently talked about the fact that we saved old texts from each other because they meant something special. A couple avoiding each other thru texting would have avoided each other in different ways if texting wasn't an option. In fact, texting could be helping them because they might be having more interaction than they would have otherwise.

This article sounds like it's from a writer stuck in "the good old days".

Texting has opened up a whole new venue for couples. Unfortunately its often a venue for carrying on secret communications in affair situations. It can be helpful, however, for some couples to use texting as a way to keep in touch throughout the day - let the other know you are thinking about them. Also, when direct communication about a conflict only ends in escalation, it can be a tool to moderate conversations about explosive issues. This is better than no communication.