SMS Friendship

Personally, I think the second greatest invention of all time is the cell phone. (This is next to the computer, of course). Nowadays, being updated on what’s happening to a friend in distant shores is as simple as sending an instant text message that will be received in real time. Text messages brought me closer to friends. Across the miles, SMS are creative ways of saying hi, instrumental in bringing the essence of good news that would have taken a long time were it discussed via a landline phone, and patching things up with friends after a heated discussion. (These are what I can recall from the top of my head).

There are times when a friend and I, who resides abroad, have heated arguments through SMS. Usually, we just let each other cool down and communicate when we have better dispositions. This can take as short as one day or as long as three months, depending on the issues we disagreed on. However, lately, the pattern has grown old, at least for me. We’ve fallen into this situation countless times. There are instances when we argue about the same issue over and over again. The new aspect of the arguments is the different characters involved.

Some say we don’t see eye-to-eye on most topics because that person has low EQ (emotional quotient). It actually makes sense. I sometimes find it hard to explain the most basic concepts of friendship to that person. The effort to keep the friendship is there, at least on his part. He tries his best for us to reconcile but I have given up on the thought that we will have a mature friendship with the passing of time. Come to think of it, we never really got along well even when we were in the same country. I sincerely feel that mere SMS can’t repair our damaged friendship.