Related Recs

📲

Repeated exposure over and over again

I’ve been the worst at texting throughout my entire life and even still part of me resents the idea that I should be available for constant communication (but I tell her to shut up because I do actually enjoy connecting with my friends all of whom live far away). I had a new friend who would text me constantly and at first I thought it was annoying but eventually I got used to it (then I went back to thinking it was really annoying but that was a her being annoying problem). I became really good at texting back and now I’m the person who assaults my friends who tell me they want to get better at texting with regular text messages. I stopped interacting with my friends as much through our weird obscure social media app and started just texting them directly. When I think about someone or if there’s something I think they need to hear from me I text them! I’m also in a very high-volume group chat with two of my best friends. It’s something that I think only gets better with constant practice and action and intention! I also think it’s worth just setting clear boundaries around text communication that sometimes or even oftentimes you are not going to respond right away. People know that I’m pretty busy and I’ll talk to them when I have time. And I make good use of heart/thumbs up/exclamation point reacts to show that I’m paying attention without replying ASAP. And try schedule sending texts if you don’t want to text right away and have to deal with more replies lol! Also sometimes if I don’t feel like typing I send my friends voice messages and we often end up in a chain of voice messages from there like role playing executives and employees at a factory in the Deep South that explodes and devastates the town and then being the newscasters covering the story and then being waitresses and patrons at Merlotte’s from True Blood gossiping about it. Or whatever.

@taterhole

Oct 19, 2024

🎁

offer them something better

this may not be in any way applicable to your situations: what if you were to reply letting them know you got the message, you want to connect, but texting just isn't working for you — and instead could they Facetime or do a phone call or something realtime? When I send you a text message or a whatsapp or signal or one of the many others then I am essentially giving you homework/an assignment. I put something in your inbox—on your to do list. Now you have to deal with this thing. My message, or insane flurry of messages, is going to sit there taunting and shaming you. I've been part of so many group messaging threads and they can just become so way too much to point I can't even engage in that medium. So I love the idea of communicating in a way that doesn't put a burden of response on someone—because it is happening in realtime. Instant messaging can be exhausting whereas a phone call or video chat can be life-giving. And when it is over, then it is over.

@mattshawsome

Oct 19, 2024

🕯

phone on do not disturb and being a little honest

okay i got some really amazing advice from fellow piffers a few weeks back when i was drowning with texts AND felt like a dick for telling my friends and family that getting their messages made me want to kms lol. but being honest about how i felt is super helpful so i don’t become a ball of rage. usually in a more gentle way, but being honest that texting isn’t a great way to connect with me is v important to foregrounding my relationships nowadays. do not disturb really helped me take away from feeling constantly available to people. i see their texts when i get the time to, not when they *need* or *want* me to. removing the feeling of being obligated to someone’s messages has made me feel less awful about texts and calls. esp bc i am busy so often that their messages used to interrupt my day, my flow, my viiibbbee. still trying to figure out why relationships feel like obligations to me rn… i feel like that is the core issue of my rage/anxiety feelings from texts and calls.

@ilovetrailcamsandbikes

Nov 19, 2024

Top Recs from @jilly

🐸

stop!! look at my frog!!

@jilly

Feb 19, 2025

32

📖

accepting that you’re not trendy and cool

tried reading dante alighieri’s inferno. key emphasis on tried. i got bored and realised a story written in poem form is not my typa beat. i tried because it seemed like what all the indie hipsters who are well versed would read, and that i would look cool and niche—but it just cost me $25. i prefer crazy detailed paragraphs rather than a line by line story. anyways

@jilly

Feb 17, 2025

38

🤒

stop saying “i’m sick”!!

saying “i’m sick” when you’re sick is boring. instead, here are some more funky fresh and cool ways to disclose that your immune system has been highjacked (it’s time to revive these sayings from the dead!): “i am indisposed” “i am taken ill” “i am feeling out of sorts” “i am suffering from a bilious attack” “i have been seized by an ague” “i am afflicted with a malaise” “i have taken to my bed” “the vapours have overcome me” “i have a touch of the influenza” “the rheumatism plagues me” “i am laid low with a fever” “i am afflicted with a troublesome ailment” you’re welcome

@jilly

Feb 18, 2025

15