I am a nervous-as-all-get-out texter. It’s a condition I have struggled with ever since I realized I didn’t have to call people on the phone anymore, which honestly, is probably one of the best things mankind has ever created. What I mean by this is if someone doesn’t text me back, I start to lose my mind. Did I hurt them? Insult them? Do they hate me? Are they dead or dying? Am I dead and no one can receive my text messages? Does iMessage not work in the afterlife?
Etc., etc., etc. I just never really understood why it was so hard for people to reply to text messages. I mean, we’re all glued to our phones 24/7 anyway, is it really that big of a deal to do even a one-word reply?
Well, let me just say a simple answer: people are busy, and when people aren’t around people, they generally aren’t in a talking mood. These answers, as infuriating as they are to someone who is as neurotic as I am, are generally the two main reasons why people can’t text.
ISN’T THAT THE WORST? Sometimes I feel like a Labrador Retriever, or Tinker Bell: if I don’t get enough attention throughout the day, I’ll probably die. I’m basically just a collection of particles that only feeds on the constant attention of others. This is the reason I live as a Millennial: social media has made me into a persona that if people don’t recognize at least once every few hours, I start to question my own relevance.
And NOW, this brings me to my next point: you can’t expect to be the center of anyone’s world or thought process. Sorry, honey, but it’s just not feasible to have one person on your mind all day and one person only. We can’t expect one another to constantly pay attention to each other when each of us is fighting an uphill battle of god knows what. Communication, as much as I hate to admit it, isn’t everyone’s number one priority. We’ve got to remain cognizant of the fact that we all have different priorities in our lives and unfortunately, we don’t all have the time to keep in constant contact.
Like I said, I am a person that values communication a lot; however, I am also a person who realizes that a lot of other people don’t—or really, can’t—let texting or social media take precedence over their own lives. Keep in mind that a lot people don’t carry a lot of emotional weight to texting. And frankly, if someone isn’t texting you back, it doesn’t mean keep sending thousands of messages at them within a span of an hour. It means they’re probably incredibly busy and trying to concentrate while someone is blowing up their phone and not leaving them alone.
So stop blowing up phones, y’all. We’ve all got a battle to fight and can’t always get to the phone immediately.
