Go on a local hike on the outskirts of your city, either alone or with a friend. A signal will be spotty so you’ll have time to connect with yourself and prevent yourself from being so attached to your phone and checking who’s contacting you or who hasn’t every five minutes. For a less dramatic route to a text detoxing, take the power from your cell by turning it off or placing it on airplane mode for 24 hours. This will take you off the map without traveling off the map.
Engage in one of your favorite sports, but take things a step further by playing an active role in the game versus watching it on TV. Play a round of tennis or a game of basketball. Even if you’re a lousy player, you will feel so much better with this distraction. Take up a kickboxing class, a spin class, or a barre class. Not only will the benefit of endorphins being released still be there, but it will be joined by a sense of confidence for taking up a new skill.
Work on DIY projects around the house to add one of a kind decor pieces to your space. Take the time to pick up new skills on an instrument you’ve always been interested in playing.
Strengthen relationships with in-person communication while shopping, going out for sushi, going to the movies, or going dancing at a club. Make it a rule that no one is allowed to use their phones while you’re hanging out. There’s strength in numbers and you’ll find it easier to get your mind off texting if everyone is too busy having a good time.
Texting people while you’re in a social setting like class, a meeting, work, at lunch, or at dinner, is impolite to the company you’re with at the time. Limit reading or responding to text messages to emergency situations or a family member calling. Texting should be limited in environments where it’d be a nuisance to you or people around you too, i. e. do not text while at the movies.
The great thing about a text is that its very nature means that it isn’t an urgent form of communication, so it can wait. Do not use your cell phone while you’re at a red light or traffic stop either. It takes your focus off of the road and can be annoying to other drivers who have places they want to go. Utilize blue tooth and hands-off options if interacting with your cell phone is a must while you drive. If you don’t have those things, cut it off completely or put it in a compartment in your car to avoid messing with it while you drive.
Some abbreviations (btw, fb, u, ur) are acceptable. Try to text longhand with only a couple of abbreviations in the mix. An example of this is: “Btw, what u r up to today?” The ratio of longhand words to abbreviations should always be much greater. Refrain from using too many abbreviations in your text messages or a text could look like this: “nm jc @ ma hous what u wan do 2dai. " If a person has to concentrate to decipher a message, consider making revisions to your abbreviation usage. Do not abbreviate text messages sent to people you know in a professional sense. It’s the quickest way to look unprofessional and immature. [4] X Research source
Don’t text someone for the sake of texting them. People can tell when you’re using them to bide your time over versus being genuinely interested in them and what they have going on. Be detailed and invested in your messages. Text with sincerity or not at all. If you notice that the person you’re texting is giving you one-word responses back, take it as a sign that they either don’t have anything to talk about or they don’t feel like talking. Text them another time.
Do not text someone you know multiple times everyday to ask about their life, unless you are really good friends. If you ask them “what’s up?” or “what are you up to?” three times or more in a day, you’re doing something wrong. Texting is not a replacement for in person or phone conversations, so if there are a lot of details, save it for one of those two outlets versus a text. Important details can be lost that way. [7] X Research source
Treat texting as you would a phone call to a house phone. You wouldn’t call someone’s house before noon or after 10:30 pm, so use that as a rule of thumb of when to send text messages. If you are friends who have known each other for a while, there might be some leeway with these guidelines. Use discretion. On the flipside, texting someone after midnight can be an alert that you are needy, wasted, or trying to hook up – signs you might not want to put out there.
As you would in every day face to face interactions, allow the person you’re texting to show you what your next move is. Once you’ve sent a message, don’t text that person again until they text you back. Also avoid any annoying behaviors that undermine the other person’s attempt to distance themselves from your texts. Don’t text them again with a different comment or question, don’t text them a question mark a minute later, and don’t resend the exact same message an hour later (they definitely received your message). If your friend tells you that she/he will “text u later” and after the whole day there is no reply from your friend, avoid texting a “good night” in effort to remind them that you were waiting for their text. It’s a passive aggressive behavior.
