I started texting in the SMS era. Way before the days of WhatsApp and Snapchat. Back when you didn’t have an option to change your mind and delete a sent message. Nowadays you can even edit. How lucky is the generation enjoying all these privileges? Back when a risky text was a risky text. Once you hit send, you better hope and pray coz once it’s gone, it’s really gone. You couldn’t change your mind.
My conversation skills were honed in an era where we relied on delivery notifications. Nowadays you can see when a message has been delivered, and you can even tell when the other person is typing. Who ever knew this was even possible those many years ago? When you had no idea whether you were being ignored or the other person had just had a heart attack.
When you only knew your message has been read when you got a reply back.
When you didn’t have the luxury of sending as many text messages as you wanted. When you had to squeeze your ideas into that one text and still struggle to summarize it so that it fits in the required characters. Because multiple messages meant that you had to spend just a few more bucks. And at the time my only source of income was whatever a well-wisher could spare. Hopefully, I get to meet my favorite uncle and they buy me a soda that I never bought but translated to Airtime or SMS credits.
The high “Stacy” gave me was higher than anything Coca-Cola could ever do. Nothing will ever beat the anxiety of waiting for a response from your potential apple of an eye. Or a crush that finally agreed to give you their number and you just decided to go all in with that one text. And the fact that you couldn’t tell whether they had read the message or not when they were taking too long to reply. Meant you couldn’t suddenly change your mind and delete the text.
So yeah I am still in my Haha! Era. A time when the only emojis we had were the expressions on our faces after reading the message. An era when expressions like ‘xoxo’ ‘’lol’ ‘haha’ ‘aaw’ and ‘mwaaah’ just to mention a few flourished. So even now after having more emojis than I probably need, I still find myself from time to time typing ‘’haha’’ and then deleting as I am worried about looking old-fashioned.
But can you blame me? Hear me out. When someone sends you a laughing emoji it has no feeling or sound or rhythm to it. On the other hand when you send a ‘’haha’’ we all read it as “ha-ha!” that sounds like something with rhythm and emotion. Or maybe I am just forcing issues to justify my old-fashioned expressions.
So, I guess I have to conform to change and join the world of eggplant emojis if someone cares to explain what it even stands for. I believe the world has enough Vegetarians as it is lol. What challenges have you faced in this transition yourself or what do you miss from the Haha era? Hit me up in the comments.
