In the world of relationships, it used to be customary to wait three days before calling your latest love interest after a first date.

Personally, I always found this unspoken rule amusing. Are the three days supposed to make me think someone has too much going on to call? Not likely.

Am I supposed to breathe a sigh of relief when the call finally does come? Again, not likely.

But thank goodness that with the onslaught of text messaging, this silly charade seems to be becoming a thing of the past – not because people are wising up, but because lovers just don’t use the phone anymore.

Why should they? With text messaging, you can take your time to think twice before every flirtatious comment.

When someone asks you out over the phone, you might regret yelling out, “Of course! I’m free every night!” instead of giving a much cooler response that you can think about before you type it.

Or better yet, if you instantly regret the “Yes, I’m free tonight” text you just sent, you can quickly call it back before the other person receives it.

Heck, text messaging even brings an improved twist to the old crank call. Guys, remember the days you’d call your crush Sarah just to pretend you wanted to call someone else? “Oh I’m so sorry, I meant to call Rebecca but how are you anyways?” would always do the trick to not only strike up a conversation but make her jealous.

With text messaging, you can take it a step further by pretending you pressed the wrong address on your phone list.

“Hey Rebecca. On my way now. Can’t wait to see you,” should definitely drive Sarah nuts.

But if the whole point of a good relationship is to stop playing games, then is text messaging just making it harder to connect with one another?

I have a friend who says she’s connecting with her crush all the time, but she almost never actually speaks on the phone with him. They just send each other random text messages throughout the day.

I always thought it was pretty romantic to talk on the phone until all hours of the night, but apparently I was wrong, because she loves this new system.

“It’s better this way. We can speak all day, at any time of the day,” she said.

“Plus, he’s not going to think I’m crazy if I send him a text message that first night to tell him I had a good time,” she said. “If I called him the same night I met him, I’d never hear from him again.”

Note: text messaging makes you seem less like a stalker – good point!

My guy friend is a big fan, because “it eliminates awkward, uncomfortable sentences,” he said.

“Plus, if I don’t feel like picking up, I don’t have to. I just respond whenever I want.”

So, text messaging allows us to communicate in a way that feels comfortable – at arm’s length.  

We might not be waiting three days anymore to speak to each other, but with text messaging, it might take us three years to get to know one another.

Maybe I’m being too tough. After all, isn’t it better to talk in person while you’re staring into the other person’s eyes? Surely that’s romance.

But apparently, that’s also a thing of the past, as text messaging your entourage during dinner has become as acceptable during a date as an end-of-the-night kiss.

Unless you’re like one old-fashioned girl I know who decided to stand up for relationships everywhere by quietly excusing herself during her date’s fifth texting episode of the night.

“Where did you go?” he wrote a few minutes after she left.

“Home,” she replied.