I read Polly Hudson’s article (There was one thing I swore I’d never do on WhatsApp. And now I’ve gone and done it, 27 July) with interest, but I think blue ticks fell out of fashion for a simpler reason – they turned WhatsApp into a full-time job. In an era when so many of us are trying to reclaim a little time and attention from our screens, switching off “read” receipts gave people a small but meaningful sense of control.
Being permanently contactable is exhausting. Reading a message and replying to it are two different things, but blue ticks erased the gap between them. The moment they turned blue, an invisible countdown began. Switching them off was about reclaiming the radical idea that I can read your message now and come back to it later, because at the precise moment you texted I was probably trying to remember why I’d walked into the kitchen.
Tallis Morris
Bristol
