DEAR MISS MANNERS: I have a longtime friend who constantly texts me with information and photos about people I don’t know, their vacations, that their planes have landed, personal marriage information, etc.
This is done at all hours of the day. I don’t care about this mostly useless information. I used to feel obligated to answer every text, but it is wearing on me, so I have begun answering only the ones I feel are important. Then I get a text asking if I’m OK.
If she is telling me all of this, what personal information of mine is she giving out? How would you handle this? She is a very sensitive person, and I can be quite harsh sometimes.
GENTLE READER: You mean she is touchy. Sensitive would mean being sensitive to your feelings, interests and schedule. But she is not thinking, “Oh, Caitlin will want to hear that the Mumfords landed safely, but that their marriage is in danger,” or “I should wait until a decent hour before texting.”
Miss Manners would think this particular friend would be a good correspondent not to have. What she sends you is irrelevant, intrusive and boring, and you can’t trust her not to spread information about you.
If the friendship is worth keeping for other reasons, at least stop pretending to tolerate the gossip. The answer to whether you are all right is that you are, and to why you didn’t respond is that you had nothing to say about it.