It’s not nice to poke fun at your spouse. You should never tease him/her. Sometimes you have to keep your big mouth shut. Actually, sometimes it’s more fun (and far more effective) to say nothing at all. Silence speaks volumes.

Let me set the scene: A married couple, united in love but as opposite as any two people could be sit across from one another at the dining room table working individually on the set-up of their new wireless computer tablet devices, (thanks to Santa). Each one has their mobile phone, the coordinating tablet and instructions in several foreign languages spread out before them.  Collectively, they have one goal in mind – to synchronize the devices to improve their communication efficiency (cough).

Marriage is all about communication, they reason, thus devices to make the art of communicating more efficient and fast should be easy to coordinate.

The initial excitement of having two new techie toys to play with accidentally encourages a small flicker of competition between this otherwise calm couple whose respect for one another means they would never, ever compete to be the smartest person in the relationship.  One talent they share is a stubborn need to be right, respectfully, of course. Otherwise, they are very laid back people who appreciate one another’s individual talents and have even been known to champion one another’s strengths.

For instance, the spouse whose work requires use of technology all day and has a slightly alarming addiction to her mobile device is more, shall we say, technologically savvy. She has to be. It’s part of her career.

Meanwhile, the other spouse happens to work with power tools all day and considers his mobile device to be an annoyance that causes nothing more than distraction and frustration allowing stupid people to ask him stupid questions while he is doing important man work, (hmph).

To the casual observer, this scene should be obvious. The woman with the new tablet device, bound by a technology addiction is sort of like a rat in an obstacle course looking for the cheese at the end. She will figure this device out, no matter what. When she cannot, she will complain that if it were an iPad, it would be far easier, while her spouse will ignore her passive aggressive remarks that this is not the brand of tablet she wanted.

In the spirit of friendly competition, the male partner believes he will conquer his tablet device without the aid of instructions, because since Ikea created furniture with an Allen key, no man worth is his masculine chops would dare to read the directions to anything.

Diligently, this couple clicks away on the invisible keypad, testing their mobile phones, putting fingerprints all over their pristine tablet pads. They each shoo away their inquisitive children, encouraging them to go plug themselves in to their own video games because that’s the right thing to do.

Suddenly, the energy at the table is electric.  The mystery is unraveling. Without a word, the urgency to champion the technology first becomes evident. It is a race to the finish. Who will figure out how to coordinate their devices faster? Who will win the ultimate ability to “messenger” their spouse’s device first?

Silently, the wife lifts her fully functioning tablet, angles it carefully and with the click of the photo feature snaps the image of her less than amused spouse.  He didn’t see it coming. He did not smile.

And that was the end of their communication for approximately 24 hours. Sometimes, silence is necessary.