Forget texting: we're going to sms again

Of course, incredibly handy, those smartphones. We can always be reachable. Always be in contact with everyone. In short, always being on. And sometimes I really get completely fed up with that. Especially now in this lockdown light situation. If I'm not careful, my screen time really goes through the roof. My phone gets overloaded. And I myself too, by the way. And then while texting, scrolling aimlessly through Instagram... Just checking Reddit for a bit and oh yes, what's happening on Facebook? And then you find yourself an hour later, but that's fine because you were just having a nice chat on WhatsApp.

No. I'm done with that. I want to read a book again and not constantly feel the urge to grab my phone. And that's partly why I want to go back to SMS. Simpler times. And I have three clear reasons for that:

• No checkmarks. Whether you have them in blue or leave them gray even though you've read them, it's just annoying. Maybe you can also see when someone was last online, and then you get even more questions. Why aren't you responding if you've been online? Why do I only have one checkmark? Why have you been offline for so long? Why aren't you responding to me, is something wrong? With a text message, you don't have that. An answer comes when it comes, and you just have to deal with it.
• It's shorter and more concise. From those people who text like this
  ‘Yes
  By the way
  I wanted to tell you something
  I've experienced something so bizarre
  You won't believe it
  I've been thrown off all day by it’
  NO. STOP. Now I don't even care what you've experienced because my phone is vibrating like crazy and you can easily type this in one message. How ideal when you're forced to do that... By sending a text message? No fuss, just type what you want to say and that's it.
• No group chats. Sure, that can be nice and especially handy sometimes, but why so many? I share about twenty chat groups with a number of girlfriends. That's really not necessary, is it? A new one for every birthday, every gathering, every dinner, and then also the different friend groups and pfff, there are just SO MANY.

Here is my plea for SMS. Believe me: it will bring you so much more peace. Also with your flings or dates, because come on, don't tell me you aren't constantly checking if he/she has been online. It's incredibly annoying when that's off. With texting, you don't have it in your hands, and for me, that works great. I don't stress about it anymore, and if you want to reach me, you now know how to do that.