This one-word message is the worst text to receive — are you guilty of sending it?
Is this one-word response worse than “K”? It surely seems so.
Apparently, replying to a text message with only the word “sure” is interpreted as passive aggressive or uncertain, especially when asking a friend to get together or hang out.
If someone has a “‘sure’ attitude,” it feels like they would rather “die than hang out,” NYC comedian Isabel Steckel, who posted a text exchange between herself and her brother as an example on X, explained to HuffPost.
“Asking someone to hang out for me is like a very vulnerable move. So when I’m getting that ‘sure,’ I’m like, ‘Alright, f–k it. I’m not doing it,'” she said, adding that “forcing someone to hang out with you is the worst feeling in the world.”
While one guilty “‘sure’ texter” apologized for their texting offense “while trying to appear easy and breezy” on X, the debate over texting etiquette has long been divisive.
On Reddit, one user stoked the flames of controversy when boldly declaring the word “sure” is only meant to signify certainty, “synonymous with ‘yes,'” they wrote. While they decried ulterior connotations for the term, commenters disagreed, saying that language has evolved — and the word “sure” is no exception.
“I routinely use ‘sure’ in a sarcastic and unenthusiastic way,” wrote one person.
“I generally use sure when I’m not that invested or excited about it, but I’m willing to acquiesce. Like saying ‘alright,'” another agreed.
Sociolinguist Cynthia Gordon, an associate professor at Georgetown University, told HuffPost that “sure” has an “indecisive” and “hesitant” quality, or even passive aggressive, similar to using a period to end a message or simply typing the letter “k.”
While we can all benefit from being “more generous with our interpretations” of texts, she admitted that using cheerful punctuation or writing out a more complete sentence might portray more enthusiasm than just a simple “sure.”
“I would be less happy if I invited someone somewhere and they said, ‘Sure.’ I think I’d want more enthusiasm for some social kind of engagement,” she said, adding that younger generations also expect “more enthusiasm.”
“If you’re making the effort to connect with somebody, and kind of put it out there that you do something together and the other person says, ‘sure,’ it wouldn’t meet my expectations for suggesting it was going to be a good time.”
In other words, would it kill you to use an exclamation point?
“I do think a ‘sure’ with an exclamation point is worlds different than just a normal ‘sure,’” Steckel explained.
