this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2025
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Technology

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I’m not ignoring your message – I’m overwhelmed by the tyranny of being reachable (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 3 days ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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A friend messaged me the other day. I saw it. I didn’t reply. A week later, I finally responded with the classic: Sorry for the late reply, just got to this.

She called me out. You didn’t just get to this, she said. I saw the double ticks.

Damn. She was right. I’d opened it. I’d registered it. But I’d also shelved it. It needed a proper reply, and at that moment, I wasn’t equipped.

Maybe it got lost between revisiting pictures from 2016 and the reminder I set to cancel my Nibble app 7-day trial on day 6. Maybe I got a call? Perhaps I’d wanted to sink back into that Substack article about reclaiming attention, ironically while still on social media. Maybe I was working one of the four jobs I need to survive under capitalism’s boot heel. Maybe I was doing nothing?

Does free time now equal availability?

I get a ping from the family group chat, which doubles as an IT helpdesk for my mum. My best friend just FaceTimed me about a White Lotus episode, and another left a voice note crying about a possible diagnosis. All this, lodged between videos of cats and genocide.

The boundaries between reception and response have collapsed.

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[–] melmi@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 days ago

"Just got to this" doesn't really seem like a lie to me. If they said "just read this", that would be a lie, but "just got to this" implies they didn't have time to reply/think about it, without commenting on whether they read it. Honestly to me "just got to this" implies it's been on their to-do list but they didn't get around to it until now. If they hadn't read it at all saying "just got this" or "just read this" would make more sense.