A friend of mine sent me an e-mail the other day.

She’s dating a guy for a couple of months.

She enjoys him, they have a good time.

But, he is the worst at communication.

He is a chronic texter. A lot of people are chronic texters. I get that. People over-text, people text too much information, people replace phone calls, face-to-face with texting. I get it.

But she said to me:

David.

The other day he did something that I thought was absolutely ridiculous.

We’ve gone out, we’ve hung out, we text.

The other night he is messaging me on Instagram.

I couldn’t believe that. You know what my response to her was?

Post a photo with a middle finger, and send him a private message. Maybe he’ll get the gist that you’re not a child, and you want to actually communicate. Or maybe, send him a little picture on your phone, because let’s face the facts people, phones are actually things that we talk on.

I know, it is a weird thing, isn’t it, that they’re not texting devices. I know it is strange, we kind of believe that a phone is a thing that we can actually communicate on instead of just a texting device.

It’s kind of crazy, how we don’t communicate anymore. It is so frustrating to have these conversations throughout the day. I find them actually disturbing, when people are Facebook IMing me even though they have my number.

Instagram messaging me even though they have my number. I don’t feel like checking Instagram, or Twitter, or Facebook for a direct message. You have my number, either text me or call me so we can have some communication.

But communicating through social media is just such a complete child-like waste of time.

Anyway, we’re not going to change the way people hide behind their devices. I think that it is sad that people are hiding behind their devices every single day. But, we’re either going to have to accept it, or lay some ground rules down. I believe in laying ground rules down. If you’re going to date me and have my phone number, don’t contact me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or any other ways of chatting. We’re either going to talk, or we’re going to text. Send me a voice message, send me what ever you need to send me, but please do not contact me through so many different channels.

I don’t want to be checking messages all day long on my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or anything else.

In dating, you need to set the ground rules. And if this man boy — or this woman girl — can’t seem to get it together….

Then I strongly suggest you find somebody else. You need to talk about how you want to be communicating too, because it is very important to do that. It is called respect, and that is what a real relationship is all about. I’ll see you later. You can find me on Google+.

Facebook.

Twitter.

Instagram.

You can text me.

Or you can even e-mail me. Hey, we forgot about that one. See you later.