As I write this, I’m thinking about all the different songs that have “call me,” or something to that effect, in the lyrics. Now it can be call me, or text me, or instant message me. Reply to my email? How about a tweet? Instagram? Does anybody actually communicate via Pinterest?

No matter what method you use to reach out to someone else, a key component of communication is expecting communication IN RETURN. I mean, that’s usually the case, right?

Can you tell the difference between someone wanting to engage in a dialogue versus, say, sharing a cute cat meme with no expectation for a response?

If someone doesn’t specifically say CALL ME, can you figure out when it’s optional to get back to them and when you’re quite sure they’re expecting to hear from you?

I think that’s a real issue these days. When I saw this on Facebook, I thought – OMG, YES!

As a small business owner, I could talk forever about the number of times I leave messages for clients that are pushed aside because they’re busy, or ignored completely. That’s a whole post on its own. Whatever happened to respect and common courtesy? If you don’t know the answer, kindly respond saying that you DON’T KNOW. If you are waiting for more information, please tell me you’ll get back to me LATER. Don’t leave me hanging, wondering if you even got my message at all. Outrageous expectation? I don’t think so.

But let’s talk about friends and family, instead.

Unless you are super-duper important, like LeBron James or Beyonce (and if either of you is reading this, hey! Go Cavs! Love Formation!), you’ve experienced people not getting back to you. Please say that’s true, because if it’s just me, I’m going to feel much worse than I already do. Sometimes you message a friend and a few days or even weeks later, they apologize for forgetting. Or not. They just forget entirely. Then either you’re the asshole saying, hey, how come you never got back to me? Or, you pretend it didn’t happen, if it wasn’t something important like asking if they can spare a kidney.

Even if I didn’t need a kidney, maybe I just felt like talking with you because I like you. If you don’t call me back, guess what? That signals to me that this friendship might be one-sided.

And that might not be your intent at all.

So. If you want friends, be a friend. If your friend calls or sends you a message of any kind, respond in a timely fashion. Don’t be a dick and don’t make me feel like an asshole for feeling sad and saying something about it.