Friendship Styles : text-message responses and "remote housemates"
EARLY DRAFT! My long-lasting friends are a diverse bunch, but they all have one thing in common: they all return texts fairly quickly, virtually always. Besides the obvious "being more engaged", is there a deeper meaning? Can the average text response time be used as a predictor of friendship longevity? I'm come to see that the answer appears to be "yes" on both counts. Let me elaborate! First, let's be clear: I'm NOT talking about new acquaintances, i.e. situations where a sluggish response could be - and often is - a sign of lukewarm interest. Here I'm talking about friends or prospective friends past the initial stage , after a connection has been established and it appears to be generally solid. Text-Message Responses Whenever I further investigate chronic substantial delays in responses, it typically appears to point to a personality trait, rather than some dynamics between me and that person - and I hear a lot of " I'm the same wit...