Do you receive texts?
Seems like an innocuous question, right?
According to Portio Research, 7.8 trillion texts were sent in 2011 and 8.6 trillion in 2012. By 2016 they predict earthlings will send almost 10 trillion texts. That’s even more than the total number of complaints Yahoo! employees sent to their HR office this past February.
What’s the rule of thumb for answering a text? Is it immediate? Do you feel the urge to answer a text right away because you’ve set your phone settings to vibrate whereas other notifications — like email, Facebook,,etc. — are simply in your to do list queue?
Is there any psychology research behind our beliefs in texts versus other forms of digital communication?
Have you stopped reading because you’re now answering a text?
Research from Kansas University in 2012 suggested young adults weren’t addicted to texting rather they have developed a compulsion. If a text sat unanswered, after four hours it might be deemed useless thus creating the compulsion to answer quickly. I wonder if it’s similar to the delayed gratification ‘marshmallow’ experiment made famous by Walter Mischel.
Sorry for the white space, I had to answer a text.
As texting becomes the new email for many of us, do we need to think about textpectations? Why is it for many of us texts feel as though they have to be answered immediately? Perhaps we need to establish textiquette.
Or has the text already left the device?
