Calling him is a very good idea. remember that no apps, icons, smilies, features etc. would never be more important than hearing human voice. Call him and call him from a landline, because the cell phone reception is not always perfect, and you may not hear all the nuances of his voice when he talks to you on the cell phone. I never do any serious conversations on the cell phone, be it with close friends, interviewers, and a small bunch of people who matter to me a lot. The quality of landline connection is so high these days that you would hear how he breathes and all the voice modulations as if he were right there next to you. So in terms of gathering info about him, this is best. In terms of removing misunderstandings, this is best too, for reasons that are too obvious to list.

In general, I would recommend you read this thread in general:
http://forums.psychcentral.com/relat...cal-abuse.html

or, if this is too much trouble, one post from that thread that has a behavioral recipe just for you:
http://forums.psychcentral.com/4087996-post23.html

The advice is brilliant.

In your case, to modify this advice to your situation, you are always the victim or perceived victim of silent treatment, and you have good (meaning - valid and not frivolous) reasons to be in this position because of how your mom treats you (maybe others, too, but it is sufficient to have just your mom give you silent treatment to develop your attitude so you do not need to dig further in analysis of causes).

You probably have never been on the other end. Also, you probably do not have overwhelmingly many contacts or very high pressure job, because from your description you are basically a free on-call worker. If they text you, you respond. That is being on-call. Do you get paid to respond? You do not - so you are an on-call volunteer.

Now imagine that you had a demanding, high pressure job, a large social circle, and all of that, and, you would physically be unable to provide your "24/7 on-call support to whoever decides to message me".

And then act accordingly.

Do not respond to texts right away. Just do not. Or respond with "sorry, busy now, more later" (I do not use SMS so I do not know how to type in text speak and instead I type in normal English, but you can adapt to the proper etiquette of texting).

If you feel a compulsion to respond right away, do not respond to the sender; send an email to yourself instead. Set an alarm or timer on your cell phone for 2 hours. After 2 hours, read the email you sent to yourself. Do you still like it? Does it say what you want to say atm? Is it worth sending? If it is, is it worth sending now or can it wait on ice for another 1 hr (then set another alarm).

And everywhere make a dedicated, conscious effort to delay your response time. Rose' examples in that little post I recommend that you read are marvelous - brief and to the point.

And then, fake it until you make it. Keep doing the forced delay of response until you get over the compulsion to be instantly on-call.

This would be very helpful in many ways, as you would break the cycle of feeling like a victim of silent treatment.

As a collateral benefit, you will not appear desperate to potential dates. On-call availability can be interpreted to mean that you are desperate.

Remember that people get paid to be on-call: firefighters, midwives, site realibility engineers, presidents who have to rush to disaster sites - they all are getting paid. And you are not only providing your services for free, but you are providing them to your own detriment, creating hurt, disappointment, and anger in yourself.