“Trust me with my sms dear …”

Caught over compromising messages via sms and messaging services … Looks like technology is the cause of social ills and relationship break ups these days! It’s probably not that people cheat more these days but perhaps it’s easier to trace the cheat??! :p I wonder what they use in the Stone Age days. Compromising messages via smoke signals? Hmmmm … now THAT would be a sight to behold! Hahahaha …

In any case, the gist of yesterdays’ topic over the Big Bang Breakfast show was how much do you trust your spouse or partner with their sms? One listener claimed that his relationship broke up because he accidentally read his girlfriend’s sms one day and the supposed “god brother” of his girlfriend (with whom she spent a lot of time with) left the following text message, “Good night. I love you.” And, as they say in the theatres, the rest was history.

This reminds me of an incident with an ex-colleague. He was cheating on his wife and was caught with his “pants” down (figuratively speaking) when his love interest decided to text message him at all hours of the day and NIGHT! Now, can you imagine your boyfriend’s or husband’s handphone beeping at 2 in the morning? Not one or two nights but for several nights in a row. Even a stupid wife would be suspicious, wouldn’t she? And his wife was no fool. All hell broke lose and as the Cantonese saying goes, it was “look kor tai fung siong”. She “whacked” his beloved sports car. She caused mayhem at home. She “whacked” his head. She went crying to her family and his family. But who could blame her .... Ahh … hell hath no fury like a woman scorned or cheated upon.

But, but … what if the text message was entirely innocent? One lady listener claimed that her good friend (a guy) got into a huge row with his girlfriend over her online messages to him. And she (the listener) was extremely saddened by that as she claimed that the friendship was entirely innocent! So, does this mean one has to stop sending text messages to one’s friends who are of the opposite sex but are attached?

What happened to trust? What if it was truly an innocent message that was misconstrued? Would you check your partner’s text messages? And would you feel insulted if your partner checks yours?

Hmm … personally, I think that if there is nothing to hide, what harm is there for him/her to read the messages? After awhile, he/ she will get bored with it. But, yeah, one would probably feel as if there is no trust in the relationship. Then again, trust is a rare and precious commodity these days. To trust or not to trust? To check or not to check? It’s a tough call.

You are damned if you do. And you might be damned if you don’t!