One of the worst feelings in the world is sending a message, seeing the delivered, then read, then the infamous

…

Then nothing.

A minute passes, still nothing.

5 minutes pass, they’ve clearly been eaten by a shark or hate you. There are no other options.

Apple comes in clutch with the save though. Turn that “read receipt” off and we’re good to go. Look at people’s messages and avoid them as long as need be with no consequence. They’ll never know.

Now you can go back to the good ol’ “I didn’t see it” claim. Does anyone believe you actually didn’t see their message from two weeks ago? No. Are you going to use the excuse anyway? Sure as heck right you are. No evidence means it didn’t happen.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve experienced a shift though. I’ve found the people who are the best and most intentional friends keep their “read receipt” on.

Deep, I know.

But it takes some transparency and honesty to let people know when you’ve read their message. It gives you two options, look at their message and respond right away, or leave the message after looking and know that they’ve seen that you’ve looked at it.

As soon as the option to not show I read a message was introduced I jumped all over it. I wanted to be unhindered by other’s lives reaching into mine.

But as I texted some of my friends that had the receipt on, I realized how much it meant to me. (Feel free to call me a white girl if you’d like.) I felt like they weren’t afraid to be transparent. Like they weren’t hiding anything.

I started trying to think of what my motivation was for not letting others see if I’d seen their message, and I realized it was pretty much all egocentric me focused reasons.

May seem like the most first world problem of them all, but it’s something that’s actually meant quite a bit to me.

I’ve decided to turn my read receipts on. What you see is what you get. I can’t guarantee that I won’t miss your message, or see it and pretend to respond and forget for two weeks, but you can hold me accountable to it now.

The last thing I want to be is the guy who you always see on his phone, yet if you text him, he never responds right away. Not present for the reality you’re in or the virtual one you’re pretending to be in.

People are my thing. If I care about them, I’m going to make them a priority. Sometimes that means in person, sometimes that means through technology.