Many of us use x’s through Facebook, texting and other online chats but do any of us really know what they mean?
Well, in the beginning someone somewhere decided that an x looked like a kiss and thought it’d be great to send xxx on the end of a letter to show their love. So it started out as a symbol of love and over the decades the x’s meaning has twisted. Still based around the same idea, but just not the same. X’s used to mean real kisses, like the kind your Grandma would send in your birthday card. But nowadays if your best friend chucked a few x’s on the end of a text the idea of real kisses doesn’t really come to mind. So, if they don’t represent real kisses anymore what are they?
From my point of view and understanding x’s and the amount you send someone is like a rating system: “How good is your friendship?” For example; between me and my friends whenever one of us starts texting a guy they’re interested in, the first question is, “How many x’s are you up to?” You can then kind of guess how much they like each other by how many x’s. It sounds pretty stupid now that I’m saying it but it’s become such an automatic assumption.
Unofficial stages of the ‘X’:
1. It usually starts out with a smiley face.
2. An x will be thrown in just to ‘test the waters’ and if you get an x back that’s a good sign. If not it’s kind of like the equivalent of rejection.
3. Every now and then someone will add an extra x and it will just keep going up and up and up. To give you an idea, my best friend is up to 35 xs and 4 hearts with her boyfriend. As you can see you can get very carried away.
Below are the contents of a Facebook group which outline the creators view on x’s.
The meaning of x's
x= friends
xx= close friends
xxx= i like you
xxxx= your cute
xxxxx= your hot
xxxxxx= i want you
xxxxxxx+ = i love you
no kisses = i hate you and i don’t like your existence.
It works pretty much the same with your friends as well, except mostly not with guys to guys cause as my brother says “that’d be gay”. I guess it’s just because girls are more open about their love for their friends. Not to say that guys aren’t, but the majority of them wouldn’t be comfortable sending x’s.
The use of x’s is pretty materialistic and from my point of view sometimes a cop out for showing your true feelings. Boxes of chocolates and bouquets of roses have now been replaced with an ‘I love you’ text and a page of x’s. If you truly love someone the amount of x’s shouldn’t need to represent your feelings. Use these magical things called words, they can tell you much more than an x can. Go against the norm and bring back the romance of a candle-lit dinner or a love letter in the mail. Share the love with something to remember.
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