Digital Dating Rules

Best way to impress when sending flirty texts? Learn how to spell

This woman is smiling because the person texting her can spell.

Courtesy photo

Call us old-fashioned, but we are happy to hear that people still value accuracy in spelling and grammar, especially when it comes to courtship. According to a Digital Flirting Rules survey by chat and messaging app Omlet, most men and women say funky or informal spelling is the No. 1 biggest turnoff when receiving chats or text messages.

In other words, your “cr8tive” words are not cute. Seventy-three percent of women and 58 percent of men disapprove of that nonsense.

Both sexes also disapprove of lack of punctuation and grammar (46 percent of men and 59 percent of women). Men also hate multiple exclamation points. Apparently the ladies aren’t as bothered by them, which is probably because they’re the ones using them. On the list of turnoffs for men, it ranks No. 2 (47 percent disapprove). Only 38 percent of women had negative feelings about overly excited messaging.

Another thing on which the sexes can agree: emoticons and emoji. Thirty-one percent of men and 38 percent of women prefer to receive chats and text messages filled with smiley faces, winks and all that other stuff. So, you know, keep doing that.

Something on which men and women radically disagree: the late-night texts. Guys really like being messaged from 11 pm-7 am (21 percent), but only 1 percent of women want to receive texts in the middle of the night — and 55 percent really dislike it.

So, dudes, maybe chill on the “R U up?” texts at 3 am. Perhaps they’d be better received if delivered as “Are you up?”

Here are the big turnoff takeaways:

Top five biggest digital flirting turnoffs for men

Funky or very informal spelling (58 percent disapproval rating)
Multiple exclamation points in chat messages (47 percent disapprove)
Lack of punctuation and grammar (46 percent disapprove)
All lowercase words (41 percent disapprove)
Excessive slang — LOL, BRB, WTF (40 percent disapprove)

Top five biggest digital flirting turnoffs for women

Funky or very informal spelling (73 percent disapproval rating)
Lack of punctuation and grammar (59 percent disapprove)
Excessive slang (54 percent disapprove)
Messages during sleeping hours (51 percent disapprove)
All lowercase words (50 percent disapprove)

unspecified

Jobs report

Texas ranks among 10 best states to find a job, says new report

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

You have a better chance of landing a job in Texas than in most other states.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

job market texas wallethub jobs