What does it mean when a guy waits to respond to messages?

[Anonymous]

There's a guy I've known for many years that I'm interested in and he's generally very hesitant with initiating contact with other people. Recently, he messaged me out of the blue, something he rarely ever does, and since then we've been messaging back and forth everyday.

But there's one thing I've noticed that's confusing me. With the messaging system we use, it indicates whether the last message I sent was read or not. Usually, he reads the messages within the hour, but he always waits a few hours before he replies. And just 2 days ago, I replied to his question and asked back a similar one. He read the message right away, but still hasn't responded.

Does this mean anything? Was he ever interested? If so, has he already lost interest? I know lots of girls play hard to get, do guys do it too?

[markml]

Actually, I've seen that a lot of people (both guys and girls) do this to some extent.

And from the sound of it, he's not really taking that long to reply. A few hours to a few days is not long at all. It's a sign that he's being thoughtful, and not just blabbering to you.

If he always replied immediately, that would actually be a sign that he doesn't really care about you.

On the other hand, slow replies aren't necessarily a sign that he does care about you. And very slow replies could be a bad sign. But 2 days is hardly anything to worry about. When it starts to become weeks, then you should maybe worry.

In short, slow is better than quick, unless it's too slow. But don't read too much into the timing anyway.

[MrOracle]

Most guys do this, and it doesn't mean anything other than he's busy/distracted/lazy and doesn't feel like replying at that moment. Guys suck at the phone, and they're even worse with texting, so don't read any more into it than that.

[Asker]

If a guy was interested though, would he not make an effort to reply?

[MrOracle]

Not necessarily. I know guys that are so lazy that they won't get off the couch to go have sex with their sexually-frustrated girlfriends, LOL. And sometimes guys really are busy with something. Plus, guys simply don't live for/on their phones like girls do. They put more priority on real life communication than on texting.

If you want a real conversation, CALL, don't text.

[theultimet007]

As you said the guy is hesitant with intiating contact with other people, so maybe he is lacking confidence and he want's to think over the reply he want's to send or is thinking of someting interesting or funny to say. I myself do it most of times..lol.

or maybe it's beacuse we guys give more priority to real life communication on calling or texting on phone as mr oracle said.

[Belgie]

It doesn't mean anything. Guys just don't communicate in the same way that girls do.