Unpopular preference, maybe? I’ve worked the title a few times but can’t get it phrased as a concise opinion. Regardless, I think it still fits the spirit of the group.
SMS Texting in 2025 sucks. The overwhelming majority of “unknowns” texting me are marketing BS (that I didn’t sign up for), scams, and other junk. It’s almost at the same state that calling was ~10 years ago. Even besides that, texting a friend/family member to have a conversation feels so… wasteful? It’s something I used to do and now never would. Anecdote: I also barely respond to texts at this point unless it’s a direct question, “I’m at the store, do we need milk?” “Yes.” Even still, half the time I’d just call them to say “yes.” According to my cellular provider, I’ve sent 16 SMS messages since March 25th.
If I’m trying to contact someone, I always just call them unless I know they won’t pick up and have told others to do the same with me.
Counterpoint to this is that some people think it’s rude to cold-call, which is fair, but I have a good enough relationship with the people I keep regular contact with so that they know they can just call back at their own decision. Other than that, I’m only calling businesses/customer support, so it’s a moot point.
While texting is asynchronous, it’s also not guaranteed delivery. I live in an unreliable part of town and work in a Faraday cage (not literally, just surrounded by concrete & rebar). This has made for some epic arguments as to why I didn’t pick up eggs on my way home or whatever. At least a voice mail will eventually come through (since it’s stored on some server).