Why Do People Take So Long to Reply to Text Messages?

We’ve all had that frustrating experience of texting someone and failing to get an answer. It can be especially disappointing when you text to make an arrangement, share some gossip or news, and you’re excited to hear what the other person’s response might be. You wait while the minutes turn to hours, then days—and ultimately you give up waiting and it’s difficult not to bear a grudge (怨恨).

There are some basic, practical reasons why people sometimes fail to respond straightaway, but there are also some deeper factors to consider. On a practical level, it’s possible the other person read your message when they weren’t in a position to respond—such as during an online meeting or because they were chatting to someone in real life—and then they simply forgot all about it.

Some psychological reasons for a lack of response are more interesting. You might fear that you’re being ignored, but another possibility is that the other person is struggling to find the right words. People with perfectionist tendencies, in particular, can find it difficult to respond—their reply has to be sufficiently witty, polite, supportive or entertaining (depending on the context). Far from not liking you, it could be that the pressure they’re putting on themselves to respond in the right way that leads them to delay

Another trap people fall into—especially if they’re putting a lot of thought into their answers—is that they can spend so much time composing a text in their minds, they end up thinking they’ve sent it when actually they haven’t got around to physically typing out the reply. Unless you have good evidence that you really are being purposefully ignored, rather than bearing a grudge, it might be helpful to gently remind the other person.

参考范文：

The reasons why people delay replying to texts include practical issues like unread messages due to busy schedules or forgetfulness, and psychological factors such as fear of criticism, perfectionism causing overthinking, or mistakenly thinking a reply was sent. It recommends addressing the situation calmly rather than assuming neglect, promoting better communication.

这是一篇说明文。人们延迟回复短信的原因包括实际原因，如由于繁忙的日程或健忘而未读的信息，以及心理因素，如害怕批评、完美主义导致的过度思考或错误地认为已经发送了回复。它建议冷静地处理这种情况，而不是假设被忽视，促进更好的沟通。

(详解)

1. 要点摘录

①There are some basic, practical reasons why people sometimes fail to respond straightaway, but there are also some deeper factors to consider.

②On a practical level, it’s possible the other person read your message when they weren’t in a position to respond—such as during an online meeting or because they were chatting to someone in real life—and then they simply forgot all about it.

③Some psychological reasons for a lack of response are more interesting. You might fear that you’re being ignored, but another possibility is that the other person is struggling to find the right words. People with perfectionist tendencies, in particular, can find it difficult to respond—their reply has to be sufficiently witty, polite, supportive or entertaining (depending on the context).

④Unless you have good evidence that you really are being purposefully ignored, rather than bearing a grudge, it might be helpful to gently remind the other person.

2. 缜密构思 将第一个要点进行总说，将第1、2、3点进行总结；将第4个要点进行分说。

3. 遣词造句

The reasons why people delay replying to texts include practical issues like unread messages due to busy schedules or forgetfulness, and psychological factors such as fear of criticism, perfectionism causing overthinking, or mistakenly thinking a reply was sent.

It recommends addressing the situation calmly rather than assuming neglect, promoting better communication.

(点睛)

(高分句型1) “The reasons why people delay replying to texts include practical issues like unread messages due to busy schedules or forgetfulness, and psychological factors such as fear of criticism, perfectionism causing overthinking, or mistakenly thinking a reply was sent.” (运用了why引导的定语从句。)

(高分句型2) “It recommends addressing the situation calmly rather than assuming neglect, promoting better communication.” (运用了动名词作宾语和现在分词作状语。)