iMessage sent vs. received ratio

All relationships are a balance of give and take. It’s exceedingly rare to find situations where there is a perfect distribution of effort made by both parties. Throughout my life, I’ve typically been the person who puts in more effort.

However, lately, I find myself pulled in so many different directions that I at times become the one who is a bit shorter with replies. I’m not sure I fully realized that til typing this newsletter, so maybe these unhinged UI designs are therapeutic for me (or at the very least, cathartic).

One-sided relationships manifest themselves in many ways, but one of the most quantifiable is in message exchanges. If one person sends most of the texts, that’s a strong sign someone isn’t as interested in the relationship. This data is quantifiable, so what would happen if the numbers were more… in your face? One can imagine a horizontal bar, similar to what YouTube used to have, to show the like/dislike ratio on videos to visually represent the number of messages sent and received between two people.

For many, this would be a painful acknowledgment of something they understood implicitly. For others, seeing how many messages have been sent would be shocking. I don’t think there’s much utility here, but I’m morbidly curious to see this number with some people in my life.

Have a friend who texts you way too much? Send them this newsletter.

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