Let’s talk about texts.
If that guy or girl you’ve been chatting up online is suddenly ghosting you, you’re probably not sending the right message, according to a Plenty of Fish survey released Tuesday.
The dating site’s Conversation Nation 2018 report surveyed 2,000 US singles ages 18 and up about what pushes their buttons over in-app chats. And that old cliche about wanting someone you can talk to or not talk to for hours really is everything: 74 percent of men and women said good conversation is the best indicator of great chemistry on a date, even over physical attraction. And 83 percent of singles said that great conversations on a dating app can lead to better conversations on a date IRL.
But those same messages can also be huge turnoffs if you make any of these three texting sins:
You don’t use “their,” “there” and “they’re” correctly
Digital natives are actually sticklers about grammar, as more than half (58 percent) said bad grammar is an even bigger turnoff than bad sex. So turn on spell check and proofread your texts before hitting send.
You take too long to respond
Don’t get hung up on playing it cool by waiting three days to call or respond to someone you like. That’s gone the way of the landline, as three in four singles say that leaving a message on “read” and not replying for days at a time is a much more annoying habit than replying too quickly. In fact, 89 percent of singles will respond to a message on a dating app within 12 hours if interested and 23 percent will respond right away. “People interpret rapid responses as a sign of serious interest and if they haven’t heard from you in a couple days, they assume you’re not interested,” wrote Celeste Headlee, author of “We Need To Talk — How To Have Better Conversations,” in Plenty of Fish’s report. “It’s good to respond, even if it’s just to say that you don’t have time to craft a lengthy message, but you saw their note and will get back to them.”
You use these explicit emojis
Most people don’t want to receive unsolicited dick pics — and that means they don’t want to see your eggplant emoji either, which was the least popular emoji, detested by 75 percent of respondents. Singles actually weren’t fans of the peace emoji (49 percent) or the fire emoji (32 percent) either. Go for cute icons over innuendo, as the most popular emoji were the winking face (55 percent), kissing face (43 percent) and heart eyes (41 percent) emojis.
If you’ve avoided these three texting traps, then you’ll want to concentrate on substance. The survey found that the opening message most likely to garner a response on the dating app is something referring to a shared interest or experience (60 percent) followed by a compliment on his or her photo or appearance (18 percent), or a funny joke or story (15 percent).
And segue your online chemistry into meaningful face time with a voice call before you meet IRL, as 59 percent of singles said they prefer to talk to someone on the phone before meeting for the first time. Just try and avoid politics, as potential suitors are over it. Singles said they were more tired of talking about Trump (51 percent) than they were hearing about someone’s specialty diet (20 percent), how millennials are different from everyone else (18 percent) and the upcoming royal wedding (12 percent).