Let me paint you a picture. Chloe meets Jack, and the interest is clearly mutual. They exchange numbers, and casually discuss getting dinner later in the week. They go their separate ways, both looking forward to their impending meeting. Days pass without any more contact between the pair, neither one wanting to impose or seem too interested. The week is practically over, and they have failed to see each other again.

Chloe is sitting in her room on Friday with no significant plans for the night. She is avoiding her phone because she wants to see Jack, but he hasn’t texted her yet. She finally starts typing out a message but quickly deletes it. It’s the boy’s job to text first, and she is sticking to that. He clearly was not sincere about wanting to see her again. Who needs him anyway?

Jack is walking back from class wondering if he should text her. Was she really into him? Would texting her on a Friday night just seem like a booty call? If she really wants to see him, she can text him. He is just trying to play it cool.

Friday goes by, and then another, and another. Zero contact. They pass each other on campus eventually, but neither says anything to the other because clearly the other person wasn’t into them. God forbid they look the slightest bit desperate.

Texting has gone from being an effective way to communicate through your new Razr to being a competition of who can care less.

How unfortunate is that? Think of all the missed opportunities. If you want to talk to someone, you should. This goes for all my ladies and all the guys out there. Yes, everyone.

I get playing it cool, but what is so bad about just going for it? The worst thing that could happen is they don’t reply. If they don’t reply then you can go right ahead and cross them off of the list of people you need in your life.

We could all try and keep our interest as low-key as possible and let good opportunities pass us by, or we could all put our big girl/boy pants on and take a chance.

It would take seven seconds to send that person a quick “Hey, what’s up? Want to grab lunch later?” or maybe even go for a nice “Hey, how’s your day going?” What is stopping you? Yes, the anxiety after pressing send may be excruciating, but is it worse than always wondering? That’s doubtful.