Your friend is still typing: Does waiting for chat replies cause anxiety?

From how social media could lead to divorces and post break up distress to making one  narcissistic and less empathic , several studies have surfaced telling us how everyday technology is affecting our daily lives.

Now, a new report by The New York Times’ Jessica Bennett, claims that texting causes anxiety. But, it isn’t about what you type. It is actually the small ellipses that come within iMessage when another person is writing a reply. So, it is these bubbles that cause anxiety.

In the report, she explains, “Or, in my case — in the particularly high-stakes conversation at hand — it was the bubble that popped up to indicate typing, then disappeared to show he had stopped. Then came back up to show typing, then went away again. Then returned for what seemed like an eternity (he must be writing something deep, right?) only to produce a response so benign (you know, like “cool” or “ya”) that it could only be topped by the humiliation of the bubble never returning at all (meaning he was flat-out ignoring me). Which I would know, of course, because I could see that he had read my message (that’s called a “read receipt”).”

Now, not everyone owns an iPhone, right? The report further explains that the bubble may appear as “Mr X is typing a message” on the Google Chat or Facebook Messenger, or even on popular instant messenger WeChat. This means, the report is trying to explain that any form of waiting for a reply can cause anxiety, provided you can view some indicator that the other person is typing.

The report also comes with inputs from other related personalities. For instance - Paul Dourish, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, who studies the intersection of technology and society said, “The awareness indicator as implemented on the iPhone is a curious beast — it conveys that something is being done, but it won’t say what. It’s curiously coy.”

On the other hand, Boston.com writes, “The idea that the teeny-tiny text bubble is ruling our day-to-day lives is kind of ridiculous. First of all, not everyone has an iPhone. As far as I know, the inter-message notifier, which I now know as a “typing awareness indicator,” only exists when both users have iPhones and are chatting within iChat. Secondly, not everyone is as obsessed with their phone as you are.”