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Texting can have unfortunate side effects, such as assumptions that a slower response rate is a rejection.

The lack of tone and facial expressions can lead to distortions about messages received.

Voice-to-voice or face-to-face conversations are underrated in modern times.

The days of communicating only by mail and waiting weeks or months for a response are long gone. While we may still receive some items by postal service, these are much less frequent and generally much less exciting.

Texting has become the current and often most frequent personal communication of choice.

British software engineer Neil Papworth sent the first text message in 1992, but texting didn’t become widely popular until about 2000. And in 2007, the text message volume officially surpassed phone call volume in the United States.

Email became more popular globally in the mid-1990s and remains a widespread means of communication, but texting surpasses email as the preferred means for quick, day-to-day personal exchanges.

Texting has many advantages, including the ease, simplicity, and accessibility of keeping people more connected. But texting can also create difficulties, especially around relationship assumptions.

In my work as a therapist (and as a person living in this modern world), I have noticed and like to name two domains where trouble with texting seems to most often arise: illusions of immediacy and delusional-like distortions.

Illusions of Immediacy

We know that most people have their phones on them or with them often around the clock; however, this does not mean everyone is immediately available or instantly able to respond.

Every person naturally has different schedules, routines, and processing styles. While some comments or questions in the context of an upcoming meeting might be expected to be addressed promptly (such as “Where are we meeting for lunch?”), the more complex statements........

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