Please, Don’t Send That Long Text

Emilina Lomas on 2021-04-13

Why psychology says you shouldn’t send long texts.

Source: Pexels

I admit to having sent some pretty wordy texts in my time. Upgrading from a Nokia to an iPhone as I entered college, I switched from “G2G” to lengthy conversations via text, trading in phone calls for socially-anxious-safe texting.

Nowadays, you couldn’t catch me dead writing more than five words in a text, and it’s saved me from many situations. I’ve learnt my lesson. So if you’re one to text out essays, don’t. Here’s why.

People Don’t Like Reading

It’s sad to hear for us writers, but the reality is — people don’t like reading. A quarter of American adults haven’t read a book in the past year. But with a masters degree in science, I can tell you that most self-reporting data is positively skewed, so it’s likely a lot more than a quarter. Regardless, in a digital era, reading long blocks of text is becoming less appealing. That’s partially why search-engine optimization (SEO) best practice is short chunks of text, bullet points and concise language.

So with that understood, it’s safe to say sending a long text isn’t a well-received way to get your point across.

It Can Get Misconstrued