Why do long walls of text make me hesitate to reply in group chats?

[JacobEM]

I’ve noticed I’m starting to ignore messages from certain people simply because they always send these huge, overwhelming walls of text. It makes me feel guilty, but opening a chat and seeing a massive block of text just makes me put it off for days. Does anyone else do this, or am I being a bad friend?

[Stephen.W]

I do this too. When a message looks like a wall I freeze up and put off replying for days. It isn’t about you as a person, I just get overwhelmed by big blocks.

[Mila3]

I tried asking a friend to keep it shorter or give me a quick recap, but sometimes they just send the same long thing and I feel guilty for not keeping up.

[Zachary.L]

Maybe the issue isn’t the length at all. I know I pull back when I’m not sure I have the right thing to say, or when I’m burnt out from other chats, and I start misreading the intent.

[John.S]

One thing I did was send a two sentence reply first and then ask if they want to chat later in chunks. It didn’t fix it fully, and I still drift in and out. Also I’ve noticed my coffee gets cold while I scroll.