I want to start this article off by saying that these are just my opinions and experiences.

Have you ever noticed that you can have wonderful, deep, and meaningful conversations with someone over text, but in person talking to them is like dragging a dead parrot through a PetSmart on Black Friday? What happened in the time between when you were texting them, and when you saw them in person? Did they lose the ability to communicate? I’ve noticed this quite a bit, and I have to admit that I am guilty of it myself.

But what’s the deal here? I think what I, and others have noticed, is that the people who fit into this category maybe aren’t very social at all, but have found ways, through various forms of virtual communications, to express what they want to say, without any pressure from face-to-face conversation.

So, what does that really mean? It means that through virtual interactions with others, whether it be through text, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever, people feel less restrained in what they have to say. For instance, someone who is sending a text message has the opportunity to edit whatever they are typing so they can express exactly what they want to say. In face-to-face conversations, that luxury isn’t there. You have to think on your feet, cannot edit what you have said, and have to pay attention to facial expressions, body language, et cetera.

Because of all of the pressures that come with face-to-face interaction, some people are intimidated and don’t feel particularly outgoing face-to-face. This is where virtual communication has come to save the day. In any form of virtual communication, 90 percent of those pressures are removed from the playing field. With virtual communication, people are on an even level because now both parties have the chance to say, and edit, whatever they want. It is so much easier to type words than to say them.

All of a sudden, someone who is not typically an outgoing person is blowing up your inbox because they have a lot to say, and now they have a platform to comfortably say it. Of course, there are still people who will be reserved both face-to-face, and virtually, but it does seem to be a much more common trend to be more outgoing in a virtual setting.

But with this in mind, the opposite can also be true: that some people cannot communicate virtually to save their lives, but can carry on fluent conversations for days on end. In my experience, it seems to be that those people tend to think more out loud, and talking gives them the ability to string together conversations, and feed off of the other person. But then virtually, they don’t have that energy to go off of, and so they may not be as good at putting together thoughts to be written down.

So, no matter which side of the spectrum you fall on, the next time you meet someone who you think is interesting, but maybe won’t talk your ear off, try sending them a text and see what happens. You might end up with 40 texts in an hour, all talking about one thing.