7 Things We Hate About Texting, Even Though We Love It
Technology is the best, and also the absolute worst. We rely on our phones all too often for basically everything. There's an app for everything, a moment that always needs to be tweeted, and a picture always worth taking (and then immediately posted to Instagram). So yes, we are beyond addicted to our screens. But in a modern world, you just can't live without them. It's a source of communication between you and your family, friends, and strangers around the world that you didn't even know you needed contact with. Maybe we should all agree to stick to sliding into the DMs, though, because there's some serious things we hate about texting.
We all know about the spinning rainbow of doom and the struggle of when your battery is at a dismal one percent. For having a rep of being progressive and more efficient, technology sure knows how to slow our lives down.
iPhone updates always seem to become an all-day affair, followed by another week of going back and forth to the Genius Bar. We can't even go steady with a Razor flip phone because it'll snap in half, or a Samsung Galaxy because it's battery just might explode.
Texting can really be our worst of nightmares. There's truly nothing like that typing bubble appearing during a deep convo to send our blood pressure through the roof. Here are seven things we absolutely hate about texting, even though we low-key love it, too.
01When The Typing Bubble Goes M.I.A.
Does anybody really know why it disappears? One minute that little grey bubble with the three round dots is blinking away, and the next it flew off to study abroad.
Of course, this never happens at our most convenient moment. If we notice the typing bubble, it's probably because we were staring at our screen waiting for it in the first place. It is a happy indicator that the person received our message and is crafting a response, but when it goes M.I.A. and silence follows we just don't know what to think.
02When They Have Their Read Receipts On
Read receipts are a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, they are the final and relieving indicator that a person has seen what we sent. How did people ever do snail mail -- not knowing if their letter got lost along the way or having the ability to track their packages every step of the way? No thanks.
On the other hand, read receipts can be infuriating, solely because they can tell us just when the other person is ignoring us. Now, sometimes life gets busy and that not always the case, but our minds are oh-so quick to assume.
03When It Doesn't Say Delivered At The Worst Times
When you're in the middle of a fight, when you sent a rather ballsy response, when you need outfit advice STAT, and right when you sent a truly life-altering GIF. There is a special force in the universe that sends glitches through our phones right when we need them to be on cruise control.
As if the conversation wasn't suspenseful enough, now you have the added question mark of whether or not you should hit resend... or maybe send it as a text message instead? Ugh.
04When You Get The "Where Are You" Message
Texting has made talking to our friends, no matter how far away they are, more than convenient. But convenience comes at a price, and the minute our moms text us, "Where are you," we know trouble is right around the corner.
Mom has discovered this amazing ability to contact you constantly, too. We love our moms, but we'll always take a rain check on that kind of text.
05When It Makes Things Awkwardly Sexual
Nobody ever really wanted to type the winky face. So now you have about 10 minutes of solid conversation ahead of you trying to clear the air to your crush. You wanted to be flirty, but it's way too soon to be that flirty.
I guess we can forgive this oldie, but goodie mistake, though. After all, breaking the ice is hard and autocorrect only made it awkward for a hot sec.
06When Autocorrect Just Doesn't Get It
Shoutout to the autocorrect glitch of 2017. Autocorrect has a way of really turning our words around. At its best, it tries to make us more wholesome, dropping the word "duck" in place of our profanities. At its worst, it somehow takes that text to your mom who's at the grocery store and changes the word "Pringles" and changes it to "pregnant."
I don't know if autocorrect will ever get it completely together. Over the years it has gotten better, and it can be a lifesaver when we're just too lazy to hit backspace. You're doing your best, autocorrect. We sometimes really do appreciate ya.
07When It's Either Shockingly Silent, Or Annoyingly Loud
Our text messages seem to come in waves. On the days when you're feeling chatty, is when your messages app seems the most dead. Your friends are at work, your bae's taking a nap, and you're all hyped up with nowhere to go.
But other days, especially if you're a part of a group chat, you've probably experienced a hurricane of texts on more than one occasion -- when everybody is on their phones and furious about the results of that episode of Chopped or sharing boy stories and GIFs to no end. I personally love it, because it feels like all my friends are together in one place, even when we're spread out across the country.
Other days, you're just too busy to be able to sit down and participate and you come back to a red bubble with a number over a hundred, and decide with defeat there's no way you'll catch up.
Texting we love you, but also really do hate you.
