Let me just preface this by saying; if you have these turned on you are a monster who just wants to watch the world burn.   I’m obviously talking from a dating perspective here – I understand some people need to have them turned on for work purposes, but in general, I’m not a fan.

There’s nothing more emotionally crushing than asking a potential love interest a lighthearted question such as “How was your day?” or “Did that presentation go okay?” and seeing that it’s been read but getting no response, OR getting a response so late in the game that the question being asked is now irrelevant.  If we have crossed over into a new day, then you have taken too long to respond and I no longer care what your answer is.

Eventually he does text back though, and then what?  What are the options?

1 – You keep your response time normal like everything’s peachy because you can’t let the crazy out this early on,

2 – You think, ‘Game on’, and double the time he took to write back,

3 – You don’t respond and wait till he texts again (yeah that’s right bitch, you can double text if you want me, commit the ultimate texting faux pas), or

4 – You block his number from ever contacting you again because he clearly hates you and was probably banging someone else when you texted.

Is it all part of a game?  I personally would say I’m too old for games and tend not to play them too hard till a card like this is drawn and then I start channeling Britney Spears… Oh, it is ONNN!

TechCrunch describe read receipts as an “effortless way to make people feel ignored”.  Read receipts are just a way for someone to get the upper hand!  They say, “I was soooo busy I just couldn’t respond”.  As if!  It takes 23 seconds to send a text, even something like, “Hey I’m just having dinner, will call you later”, is better than nothing.

It’s so much more insulting to know that someone has read your text and has absolutely no sense of urgency to write back… It’s as if they don’t GAF.  I’m putting a plea out: for the love of god, say no to read receipts.  Just turn them off!  Respond to my text when you see fit but don’t leave me counting the minutes since knowing you last read my text.

I’d much rather come up with theories such as your phone is dead/lost/stolen, you’ve fallen asleep, you’ve written a reply but forgotten to press send, your cat is sleeping on your phone, all your fingers broke simultaneously, you’re in jail or you’ve died in a fire.

Signing off,

CVC