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.
I think they both have their place, for the many reasons people have mentioned. But my neurodivertent self HATES whole conversations over text. I do not know what tone to read anything in. If there’s no punctuation it’s a thousand times worse. Texting is for quick stuff that’s not time sensitive. Phone calls are for anything longer than three sentences or anything time or emotionally sensitive. Drives me nuts because the majority of my friends prefer texting for everything.