I pride myself on being a fairly quick responder to text messages. Of course, there are the few occasions when my battery is dead or I somehow don't have my phone on me, but overall, I am always there to reply. So, you can understand the struggle I feel whenever someone doesn't text me back ASAP. You've likely been there before. You type up the wittiest text, hit send, and wait patiently for that typing bubble to pop up. When that ellipsis never shows, that's when all the thoughts you have when waiting for someone to text back start filling up your head.
Nowadays, almost everyone always has their phone close by. Of course, there are the obvious excuses to why someone may be slow to respond, but I just don't understand how it can take several hours (or even days) for some people. There's nothing more stressful than waiting forever for your crush to text back, or sending out a crucial text to your bestie, and never getting a response.
You may have that one friend who's the actual worst at texting back. The struggle can be so real. Your friend group may have gotten to the point where you expect it, and it's an inside joke. However, there are still times when you end up texting them with a question, or need them to spill the tea ASAP. You wait forever to hear back from them. It happens, and you likely find yourself thinking these eight thoughts all over again.
01"Who doesn't have their phone with them 24/7?"
As someone who's not afraid to admit that she's attached to her phone on the daily, I just don't understand how someone doesn't have theirs with them at all times. I even have an Apple Watch that I could text back on, if the rare case presents itself that my phone's not with me.
02"I wish they had read receipts."
I will never turn on my read receipts, because I personally don't want people seeing when I read their texts. However, I want everyone else to have theirs on, so I can see if they've seen my text and may potentially be ignoring me. This may be a little selfish of me, but hey, if people were quick to respond, I wouldn't have to be.
03"Maybe they're just busy or lost service."
At some point, the thought enters your mind that your crush or friend isn't going to text back right away, because they might be busy or may have lost service. This is the moment when you try accept that it's not them ignoring you — it's something out of their control. Of course, they'd text back right away if they could.
04"Should I follow up with them?"
After a couple of hours pass by, you wonder if you should follow up with another text. Maybe your friend looked at the text and laughed, or maybe they saw it, set their phone down, and totally forgot to respond. Sending them a follow-up could be a nice reminder, but then again, you don't want to seem needy if they really are super busy.
05"Maybe I should stop responding so quickly."
This is when you may begin to question your own texting habits. There's no average response time to compare to, but maybe you start to think that you're texting back a little too quickly. You wonder if you should start slowing down your response time. Also, if you gave them a little taste of their own slow texting medicine, they might speed it up next time!
06"Should I have called them instead?"
Nowadays, mostly everyone texts. Calling is reserved for true besties who want to talk for hours, and family you want to catch up with. I've honestly gotten so used to texting that I'm an awkward caller.
Sometimes, though, you question if you should've just picked up the phone and called instead. When you text, there's always that unknown factor if the person is going to take forever to get back to you. A phone call is quick and to the point.
07"Did my text even go through?"
After a certain point, you start to question if you have service. Maybe it's not that their texts aren't coming through, but yours aren't going out. To test out your theory, you text someone else who will respond in a normal amount of time.
08"I need to distract myself."
Sitting around and staring at your phone really doesn't do you any good, so you try to distract yourself. You might hit up social media and scroll through your feeds. That's when you notice your friend is updating their story at the same you texted them. Um, what the heck, girl!