🎤 Steve’s Heartburn for the Day: 

We’ve all been there. Your phone buzzes, you glance down, and it’s the family group text. It starts out innocent enough:

“Dinner’s at 6.” Perfect. Message received.

But then the avalanche begins.

👍 “Sounds good!”

❤️ “Can’t wait!”

🥗 “I’ll bring the salad.”

😂 Somebody laughs.

👍 Somebody likes the laugh.

🎉 Somebody celebrates the like.

Before you know it, your phone has buzzed 37 times, and not one of those notifications actually changed the original plan. Dinner is still at six.

Then, just when you think the conversation has finally run its course, someone checks in two days later with, “Sorry… just seeing this!”

Really? Because now we’re all seeing it again.

At this point, I don’t even bother reading the messages anymore. I just wait for someone to text me separately and ask, “Did you see the group text?”

No.

Because I muted it after the fourteenth thumbs-up.

Don’t get me wrong—I love my family. I really do. I just don’t need a notification every time someone acknowledges someone else’s acknowledgment. Sometimes silence really is the best reply.

And if dinner’s still at six…

Just show up at six.

No emoji required.

– Steve