Brangelina Goes Textual

Every person tied to the digital text communication system, be it email or SMS, has had to struggle with the possible misinterpretation of the intent or tone of the messages he or she has sent.  This text conversation mosaic allows us to see into the one couple’s dating process.  As mentioned in DJ Spooky’s Exquisite Corpse anthology, the interconnectedness of our narratives trio allow us to see how the digitalization of information has affected our abilities to communicate, interpret and create media. The boyfriend has forgotten an important date and the girlfriend is quick to judge him for it.  Without the assistance of a close friend, we and the boyfriend may have been lost.  With the addition of this third, binding perspective, we can see the drama for what it is and are spared a potentially damaging moment in a couple’s dating timeline.  

This short glimpse into a relationship mirrors characters and an event from popular culture: the romance between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie that went head to head with Jennifer Aniston.  Mixing this narrative into a casual text conversation has the drawback of reducing the real tabloid drama to a simple misunderstanding about the importance of certain relationship ‘milestones’.  But, it gives us the opportunity to create moments of clarity to a situation that many people have experienced while dating.  

Text messages can be easily misinterpreted, as we have nothing but the text itself and a few emoji or animations to give us context.  There is no nuance or stress put on certain words as one would hear in audible speech.  Text messages do allow us to communicate in simple, short messages that could reach a person in situations that would otherwise require one to leave whatever task they are enveloped in to ‘take a call’.  For example, before the dawn of texting, if a parent was in an office meeting and their child called, the parent would either have to ignore the child or leave the meeting.  Now, with the advent of cell phones and text messages, the child could text the parent and the parent could respond, all done while the parent is engaged in the office meeting.  

In the case of our trio of texters, the boyfriend would have had to stave off his uncertainty in real time if the girlfriend had called him instead of texting.  Communicating through text gives him time to come up with a solution. He has the ability text his girlfriend’s best friend in order to procure the necessary information in order to please his girl without making her aware that he has forgotten when they started dating.  The text conversation allows the girls to exchange frustration and correction without needing to be near a telephone or in person.  And so a relationship is saved because conversations are now digitally available, creating time and opportunity to either get it right or take it the wrong way.