I'm with Bill on this one, and I also think there's a lot of "overthinking" on this going on. There are SO many reasons why a person may not respond right away or at all. And then, like Bill said, it's a request to reply, and if I don't want to have an interaction with you, I'm certainly not obliged to.

My dad texts me memes. Sometimes I reply, sometimes I don't. It depends on where I am and what I'm doing. My mom sometimes texts me to ask how I am. Sometimes I can't respond right away, and I never actually respond because I end up talking to her on the phone first. My boss/client texts me in the middle of the night and I never respond by text because in our morning meeting we cover it. Sometimes I text her questions and she never responds. She's in meetings, she's with friends, she's doing her thing. I trust if I need the answer I will ask again and get it.

If you're reaching out to someone and want a response and aren't getting it, I would say a) did you point blank ASK them to respond? and b) if they don't, you can't guess and read their mind as to why they don't.

It seems like people are taking it quite personally when someone responds when you have no clue really what can be going on with someone at any given time. For example, if you text me in the middle of something that's going on for me, like crisis or emergency, and I don't respond, I likely will forget about your text in the midst of the stress and never respond.

These are all general "you" not directed towards anyone in particular, fyi.

There are times when I can't deal with looking at screens. They trigger migraines and other neurological **** for me. So you may never get a reply text to that specific text.

Why is it rude for someone to not respond to texts? Maybe it's rude to them for you to send them when they don't want to text with you? My point is, everyone has different communication preferences, and if you were really friends or close, then you'd know what they prefer. One of my friends prefers Google hangouts. So that's where we message. No big deal. There has to be compromise in communication mode if you have different preferences.