I will never use any kind of messaging platform that insists on "Read receipts", or even worse, the typing breadcrumbs. Fuck that shit, I'll reply when I'm good and ready, that's a big part of what makes it fun. You never know when you're going to get a sweet little squirt of dopamine == unexpected or surprise reply

Everyone just reads them in the notifications so they don’t mark as read

Can confirm. I have iMessage read receipts turned on. New text comes in, read it in the notification and don't open it until I'm ready to respond.

Except for privacy reasons, I don't show the message body in notifications.

The hack around this is to send an image which can’t be previewed

I consider everyone with read receipts off on WhatsApp someone with mental issues: They crave control and deprive me of context/cues/metadata that already became mainstream. It‘s just like someone only talking to you while wearing a mask that hides their face.

I read messages when they come in because they might be urgent and it does not take very much effort to read a message. Most messages are not urgent, however, and the response (or worse, ensuing real-time conversation) often does require some effort. So if I happen to be engaged in something I'll frequently choose to postpone responding until a more convenient time.

In the past people have taken advantage of this "mainstream" metadata to interrupt me further with increasingly desperate follow-ups and/or to jump to cynical assumptions about their value to me as a person unnecessarily jeopardizing our relationship.

So like GP I turn this functionality off and refuse to use platforms that don't allow it to be disabled. This "feature" is not required for good faith conversations between non-adversarial parties.

Do I crave control over your context? Only insomuch as I refuse to be at the 24/7 beck and call of anyone with a phone. If you want to have a real-time discussion with me you can either have the good fortune to have contacted me at a moment in which I was not otherwise occupied or you can schedule a time with me in advance.

(ノ゜Д゜)ノ ⌒┻━┻

They're in for a rude awakening when they enter the work world.