There I was, neatly packed in a stuffy Zola Budd taxi, driven by our very own South African Schumacher. To ease the discomfort, I resorted to man’s best friend. No, not my dog – my phone. The tricky thing about being piled on top of one another in public transport is that people’s eyes tend to stray to your phone.  On that day, what popped up on my phone shocked the lady next to me. It was an unsolicited sext. I clutched my phone to my chest, breathing heavily, as if I’d just run a marathon. If my skin was any fairer, my face would have been tomato red.  Why are you sexting me? In a taxi even. Eventually I recollected myself and hoped the lady next to me didn’t know my mother. Seconds later, the sext was followed by a text saying, “sorry wrong person”. So my eyes had been scarred because the sender got too excited and didn’t get a chance to double-check the recipient.

Sexting – sending explicit and sexual images of yourself over text and social network, is so prevalent  it’s even featured in the Merriam Webster dictionary. So it’s good to lay down some basic rules. First, as illustrated above, time your sexts.  Don’t just sext while someone is in church, you know. There are some seriously inappropriate times to send these things, especially those unsolicited ones.  Here are more rules:

Know who you’re sexting

This should be a no brainer! You are sending your human-making gadgets out there, the least you can do is send them to the right recipient. I don’t even want to imagine what would happen should the sext go straight into your parent’s messages. Not everyone is used to seeing your parts exposed like that. The only person you are allowed to surprise is someone that would let you see them naked, willingly.

Don’t become Tiger Woods

Make sure that whatever you are sending can’t be traced back to you. Always ask yourself, “Is there any way that this can be identified as mine?” All I’m trying to say is, don’t make your sext into a selfie. Sexts get leaked all the time. Look what happened with Tiger Woods.

Sext someone you trust

My friend got a sext from a guy who had a crush on her. He thought he was sealing the deal, but the opposite happened. She was so shocked that she had to show everyone! Let that be a lesson to all of you.

Make sure you look good

You don’t need to be a professional photographer, however, I do suggest that you send a decent picture. You need to choose a struggle; if its going to be low resolution, can the content be of quality?  Thanks in advance.

Illustration by Thato Mongale

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