When you pick up your phone and type away, it's usually to check in on someone, share gossip you were supposed to keep secret, or ask for a favor. You rarely do it to send a simple "hi, how are you?", a text that sounds empty. Yet, sending a text without a specific purpose would be just as beneficial as chatting about the weather with your baker.<\/p>\n
In an age of ubiquitous group chats, voicemails resembling podcasts, and endless notifications, text messages are occasional. Your mom is the only one who enriches your inbox, once overflowing with GIFs, gossip, and lengthy, literary mea culpa-like rants. While back in the days of the hashtag \u201cswag\u201d and Tumblr photos, you exchanged banalities via your flip phones, today you only text to break a story<\/a> and play the \u201cgossip girl.\u201d<\/p>\n You pick up your virtual pen to gossip, recount your corporate life, which resembles a telenovela, or arrange get-togethers with your friends. You send messages to give updates on your current romance with that man you met at the supermarket checkout or to plan your next sleepover. However, you don't have the reflex to send spontaneous little "wows" like the "wiz" on MSN. For you, that would be like sending empty bubbles.<\/p>\n Yet, text messaging was initially invented to stay connected despite distance (and to reassure parents during high school). Content creator @simply_nikkib_ recommends returning to the original definition of texting and not waiting for a burning issue to start a conversation via text. According to her, it's not a way to kill time but rather a soothing ritual. Every week, she makes a point of sending a message to her loved ones, just as a caring mother would to a child miles away. A simple and free habit that enriches her inner peace. <\/p>\n\n