"Bubbles Carry a Lot of Weight"

"what about the tyranny of the text bubble? Indeed, there are real problems in the world. But this was the kind of modern-day technological minutiae that had the ability to jail me in a very specific cognitive hell...

The roots of the typing awareness indicator go back to the 1990s, when people used dial-up (the horror!). But back then, it had a practical purpose: It let you know when a person was online, or that a message was delivered...

And yet, while desktop communication still comes with the question “Are you there?” on mobile, presence isn’t just expected — it’s mandatory. So the typing indicator has become a message in and of itself, “the equivalent of saying, ‘Hold on, I’m responding,’ ” said Ron Palmeri, the founder of a communications start-up called Layer that specializes in chat technology.

Or ... “I’m not responding.”

Which brings us back to text-bubble anxiety, of which there are many forms."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/fashion/texting-anxiety-caused-by-little-bubbles.html

So, so real. Ugh, I hate read receipts.

Related: Someone figured out how long it takes for those bubbles to go away on different chatting platforms.