Don't get me wrong, I'm capable of randomly messaging people to get what I need out of them.

But, I don't know how to start a relationship through text. Say, for example, I obtained a girl's Instagram account and I want to befriend her. How would I begin?

The ambiguity of text leads people to interpret your message differently, because there's no objective medium emotions can travel though. Some people reading this may assume my tone to be a frustrated 60 year old pedophile, while others can visualize a shy little kid.

Some of my strategies include (but are not limited to):

  • Casual text capitalization to denote tone: hello! how are you?
  • Colloquial vocabulary to lighten the mood: hiya! wassUP?
  • Occasional use of emoticons: hiya! XD

The main thing I want to do is give compliments. As a boy, I find it hard to give compliments to girls (IRL, too) without thinking about it from their perspective, "is he making a move on me?" and I shy away or refrain from doing it. I feel like I need to be the right type of person to make casual compliments and make it look smooth.

If you need more info ask me. But other than that, any tips?