Bad texting is really only a problem for the person on the receiving end of the communication. As receivers we want fast responses, with accurate content that makes the exchange worthwhile. Anything less than that is considered poor communication.

What if the model of bad texting is flipped around? Right now, we are focusing on the receiver and how frustrating it is for them, but maybe reversing the focus is what is really needed. Just because the texting is “bad,” doesn’t mean that it can’t be helpful when reflected upon.

Bad texting usually consists of no response, a brief response, or one that makes no sense. I’ll give you that one. This part of bad texting is never going to be useful, no matter how much reflection is pondered upon. The part that can be turned to good can be discovered when the lens is zoomed out to a wider scale.

Before that though, consider this. What if texting isn’t as important as you think it is, as necessary as the world portrays it to be and not something that you need to fret over? I get it. I used to be so anal about “reading” between the lines of text messages too.

I always thought, “Why are they not texting me back right away? “I must have done something wrong.” “Did I say the wrong thing?” And always the conclusion ended up converging to something along the lines of, “They must hate me.”

I look back at these times and laugh at how this was definitely an immaturity in my life. Am I proud of it, no, but that doesn’t mean this stage of my life went to waste.

I can look back to those days and laugh at my over reactions when id comes to texting, but I can also recall views of some bad texters. Through trial and error, and a change in perspective, I can reflect on what people have told me about their “bad texting” and recognize, that their action might be onto something.

With that being said, we all can think of those people who are notoriously bad at replying to texts and yada-yada. When you ask them why they didn’t respond they might say, “I didn’t feel like it”, “I got busy”, or even “I forgot.” To me all of these statements combine told me that I wasn’t valued and I didn’t matter.

Being older now, I can definitely identify with not wanting to text someone back, and my intention is far from “hating” the person. Often times these days, I am just really busy, don’t have a chance to reply to the message, don’t know what to say that is meaningful, or honestly, I just forget.

The base of this problem all comes to intentions, but since text in general is bad at conveying emotions, this is not going to be possible to get at. So with that ruled out, what can be looked to next?

Let's take another step back, and think about why electronic messages are relied on so much for communication. After all, there have been countless communicational conflicts due to errors in messages that have been sent; causing frustration and overall wasting energy.

That leaves us to the infrequency that "bad texters" push the send button. In the moment this is frustrating for the recipient, but maybe we should take the idea of relying less on texting for communication. Let’s follow the tip from “bad texters” and loosen the reliance we put on its shoulders.

Imagine the decrease in errors if there were more phone conversations, face to face interactions, and meetings via webcam. You would have a lot less awkward conversations where you didn’t get your point across because your iPhone auto corrected a generic statement into something a tad more inappropriate.

The technology of texting and any electronic conversation has allowed communication to increase as we no longer have to rely on horseback to send letter or the snail mail. This is a fantastic perk of instant messaging, but it is doesn’t need to consume our lives.

So take a clue from the clueless-when-it-comes-to-texting, and put down the phone from time to time to see what is really going on around you. Take this as an opportunity to stretch out your sore texting thumbs and calm your angst anxiety. Utilize the technology that has been made so readily available, but don’t let it utilize you. You are a human and there is a reason why human connection remains so valuable, even amidst the screens that we now stare at for major portion of our lives.