Silence doesn’t mean distance Explaining the struggle with small talk in today’s world often feels impossible. Not the in-person kind where conversations flow naturally, but the digital version – the text messages that demand constant replies, the phone calls that expect immediate answers, the never-ending cycle of photos on Snapchat. For some people, these things are effortless. For others, it becomes a heavy expectation that drains more than it connects. Responding quickly has become a social standard. People keep conversations rolling all day, share photos of every meal and send quick “what’s up” messages that land like pebbles against a window. Meanwhile, notifications can pile up unanswered, not out of disinterest but because they slip from memory. A text gets read in the moment, an answer forms in the mind, then life distracts. Hours later, the intention to reply has disappeared. That simple gap between reading and responding is often mistaken for a lack of care. In reality,…