How Textual Chemistry Is Changing Dating
Getty Images (3); Photo Illustration by Lauren Margit Jones for TIME 

The complex emotional interactions between two people over text message can make or break a relationship






My friend and I had just seen a play and, like everyone else in the theater, I took out my phone as the curtain came down. Waiting for me were five lengthy text messages from a guy I had been seeing for two months.
“Oh my God, he’s so desperate,” my friend said when she saw my screen.
“This is totally normal for us,” I explained. “See?” I scrolled up to show her my seven unanswered text messages before, his three blocks of text before that and so on. My friend, who lived strictly by the rule that you should not double text for fear of looking too “thirsty,” as the kids call it, was aghast. “It’s kind of wonderful,” I said.