10 Types of Text Messages you Should Never Respond To

If you are like me, you receive text messages and read them before promptly forgetting to respond. I do this all the time. I get a text at a red light, read it and then have to drive off so I put my phone down. I get a text standing in line at the store, read it and then there’s room for me to unload my cart and I forget to respond. And then there are text messages from people who only text me when they want something, which I promptly delete without reading and pretend I never got. And then there are texts I get that end up being hour-long text conversations. Some people assume I don’t text them back on purpose (some would be correct) and some people get texts back right away. But there are certain texts I never respond to, and there are certain texts to which you should not respond either. If you’re not sure which texts you should ignore without response, here they are.

Any Text from a Guy After 9 pm

Unless you are in a relationship or married and you’re apart, a casual hookup is going to text you this late at night for one reason and one reason only. Do not respond to booty call texts because that’s going to set a precedent for this guy who thinks he can ignore you all day long and then get what he wants when he wants it. Unless, of course, you’re okay with that.

Nude Photos

Please don’t respond to these. Not only does it encourage people to continue to send inappropriate photos, it might cause you to send inappropriate photos to said text messager. And just because you know you will never show his photos to anyone doesn’t mean he’s of the same mindset.

Arguments and/or Fights

An argument or fight is not something you should have via text message. Entirely too much is lost in translation and it’s not going to make things any better for anyone involved, so do everyone a favor and ignore texts that are prompting you to engage in this kind of behavior.

Drunk Texts

Drunk texts aren’t real texts. When someone texts you while intoxicated, it’s usually not a good thing and it’s usually going to lead to more trouble than it is actually worth. The only time it’s all right to respond to a drunk text is when someone needs a ride. It’s always better to respond and give them that ride rather than leaving them stranded and just desperate enough to think they can drive themselves homes.

Texts that Include Gossip

If someone wants to gossip with you, do it in person. You say one negative thing about someone in a text message and that person shows the subject and you are caught. An even better idea is to keep your hateful comments to yourself, but that’s not something many people are too good at doing.

Texts from Someone Else’s Spouse

It’s a no-go. Don’t do it. Unless that person is family or it’s an RSVP or a question about your spouse or a surprise for his or her spouse or whatnot, don’t do it. It’s not a good idea. It never ends well for anyone involved. Just don’t do it and just stay out of it and just remember that even things that seem innocent enough are often not as innocent on the part of someone else as you might assume. Steer clear, my friends.

Any Text You Receive in the Middle of a Date

Guess what? You can respond to this text message – later. But you cannot respond to any text or call in the middle of a date or dinner with other people or a social gathering. It’s really just about as rude as rude gets and we are not fans of people that behave in this manner. Don’t respond; just don’t do it. In fact, put that phone away and don’t even bother with it. The only time it’s acceptable is if you have kids not with you. My husband and I always keep our phones on the table when we are out so that we can see if someone calls us about our kids. We don’t respond to anything not from the people who have our kids.

Long-Winded Texts Better Served as Actual Conversations

When someone wants to have a heart-to-heart, do it in person. You’re going to find yourself spending entirely too long attempting to carry on this kind of conversation via text message. What you should do, instead, it just call someone and ask them if they’d like to get together and talk about it in person. Or ask them if they’d like to talk about it over the phone. It’s far more polite to do this than to respond via text message.

Dirty Texts

If you’re into this and it’s your thing, then whatever. But for most people, talking dirty via text is a no go. For example, once I text my husband something a little randy in the middle of the day and it turns out he was using his phone to show off a slideshow in the middle of a corporate business meeting and my text popped up on the screen of his phone, and therefore on the middle of slideshow he was projecting, and everyone could see the first sentence. It wasn’t too bad, just telling him that I couldn’t wait for him to come home that night, but he was ribbed about that for months – sometimes still to this day. So….don’t do it.

Texts from Strangers

I always ignore texts from strangers because they have this overwhelming need to question you. They text you, and you tell them that it’s the wrong number and then they start questioning you about who you are and where is so and so and blah, blah, blah and it makes you realize that you just wasted precious moments of your life that you will never get back.

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