Read receipts. To be, or not to be? THAT, my friends, is the question.
It’s something I’ve been battling with these past few days. Sure, to you it might seem trivial, unimportant, or a total waste of energy, but to me it’s a grueling mental debate that I’ve been having with myself for approximately the past 39 hours. So what else does one do with this information? They blog about it. Why? Because it will allow me to put my thoughts and feelings out there, and like, three of you, will enjoy reading about what goes on inside my beautiful mess of a brain. So, to the three of you, you’re welcome. To the others of you, just keep scrolling down or go read your other favorite blog (if there’s even such a thing). Kidding.
Kind of.
Anyways, I digress.
I’ve had my read receipts on my text messages for the past year and a half. I thought it was nice to let my friends know when I had seen their texts, and it just felt, honestly, powerful. It made me feel like I didn’t care if someone knew I had read their message and didn’t respond. It made me feel like people knew that I hadn’t read their message, but I would respond once I saw it. I don’t know, something about it made me feel some type of way. But a good some type of way.
But a few days ago, it hit me. When I have my read receipts on, it makes me feel like I have to respond. It made me feel rude if I opened a text, the person on the other side knew it, and I didn’t respond. I hated feeling this sense of a responsibility to respond. It started to make me feel some type of way. But a bad some type of way. Honestly, texting became a chore. And a game. A chore of a game.
So since I was feeling overwhelmed with this conundrum, I decided to turn my receipts off. And you know what? I feel better about it. I feel liberated. I feel like I can end a conversation without feeling like a jerk. I feel like I don’t have to rush to respond to a message after I read it. I felt like a virtual weight was released from my real life shoulders. Dramatic? Maybe, but you don’t make the rules around here.
So, what’s the lesson from this post? Is there one? Maybe a small one. We can either choose to feel defeated by our digital devices or should I say deVICES (heh) or we can tackle them head on and remind ourselves that we control them, they don’t control us. Again, yes, I realize this is dramatic, ok?
Anyways, I’m curious, do you have your read receipts on or off and why?
thanks for reading!
chloe