When I was finally able to get a cell phone in sixth grade, my brand new Verizon Alias became my new best friend. I would text people I didn’t even have to, download games, and use my calculator to add useless numbers. Want to know why? Because I could! Texting was also the greatest camouflage all throughout middle school. If I got into a fight with my BFF, I could easily write a thought-out, catchy but rude response like “last time I heard that one I fell off my dinosaur” in two hours and send it to them. Relationships? They were easy in middle school; texting relationships were all the thrill. Who needed a real boyfriend when all I had to do was text mine?

Fast-forward to high school, and texting was the only thing that could get you through the seven-hour school day. If I needed the answers to my algebra homework that I “forgot” to do the night before, all I had to do was text a few of my friends from class, and I would have an incoming picture message within minutes.

With updates in technology came read receipts on iPhones. Reading a message with your read receipts on and not answering was the ultimate slap in the face, saying, I’m mad at you and I want you to know. Keyboard courage gave everyone a false sense of bravery, sending confrontational texts you would only be bold enough to send in writing but never be able to say to their face.

During the end of senior year of high school and the start of my freshman year in college, I started to realize how many disagreements I had gotten into all because of a single text message. Once you start to mature, those catchy responses about your fake pet dinosaur are no longer acceptable (except for a good laugh) when you’re in an argument with your friends, parents, or boyfriend or girlfriend.

If texting is supposed to be another form of instant messaging, why do we all read into the texts that we receive? The definition of text message is “a short message sent electronically usually from one cell phone to another.” The key word there is short, so why do we all get so offended when our friends respond “k.” instead of “kkkkkk?” Is it because those extra Ks really make all the difference in the meaning? Or when you send a text to your parents and they fire back with the response “Don’t give me an attitude” —Sorry, Dad, but I’m pretty sure you cannot hear my attitude through my text message.

I have gotten into so many fights with my friends over texting that we have actually starting sending each other voice recordings so that we would know exactly how each other’s text was meant to be said and heard. (Seriously, it helps.)

Texting can be many things—the start of a new relationship or friendship, the answer to that chemistry question you’ve been working on for two hours, or even your Uber arriving (PAARTYYYY!). But it should definitely not be the cause of an argument with your best friend, boyfriend, or even your family.

So here’s a piece of advice: next time you are mad at me or have something serious to talk to me about, PLEASE just pick up the phone and call me.