[NA] Do you delete your old text messages?

Do you delete your text messages after reading?

  • Yes

    Votes: 6 8.8%
  • Yes, unless they're important or meaningful

    Votes: 17 25.0%
  • No

    Votes: 45 66.2%

  • Total voters
    68

RussR

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Russ
Talking with my Mom earlier today (it is Mother's Day, of course), she mentioned how she no longer had a text I had sent her yesterday, because she deletes all her texts after she reads them. I was stunned - my response was basically "WHAAAT"? I couldn't see why anyone would even bother to do that. But, she likes to keep a clean "inbox" even if it's for messages. She was equally as shocked that anyone would keep all of them, "cluttering up" their messages.

We had a good laugh about it, and then she called my brother, who when asked the question in the poll, basically responded, "Noooo, of course not!"

Now, granted, she's a 75-year-old homemaker who doesn't have any real reason to ever refer to old text messages, whereas I am an active CFI and pilot who DOES occasionally have to refer to old text messages. I fully agree that there are very few times I've ever had to do so, but it's not like the messages take up any real space, so I don't see the benefit of bothering to delete them. She of course, sees no benefit to keeping them unless they are very important or sentimental, etc. So she does keep some, but very few.

What do YOU do? See the poll.
 
I keep ones from people. I usually wait a few weeks before deleting the ones from machines, though.
 
I never delete texts from people. But if it’s a spam text or from a business, I’ll delete after I’m done with whatever I needed to do with it.
 
What, and take a chance that my wife will see the old text.??
 
I delete most of them. I'll keep a few threads from friends or family if it had something I needed to refer back to soon (upcoming significant date or piece of information). Otherwise I have no need to scroll down a list of 30 recipients to find a text from 6 months ago about what restaurant to eat at when in Arlington, VA lol
 
Delete most of them. That way I can find the ones that I really need.
 
I delete some. But eventually I find that I have a big backlog and give up on them.
 
I delete most of them...if I remember to and feel like it that day.
 
I only delete the ones that might incriminate me or someone I love. I never delete evidence against anyone else, or anything else.
 
There’s a Setting to have them auto-delete after 30 days or a year.
 
insufficient choices.

I delete some immediately, I delete some eventually, and some I still have.
 
Half my texts are 2FA verification codes, so those go adios pretty quick. Texts from people left alone generally.
 
I save emails if they are important. I never save texts. I like to keep my phone clean like that. To me, hoards of texts stored in the phone is akin to having garbage piled up in your car.
 
Never have deleted a message! I think my email inbox has 45,000 emails in it

Wow.!! I thought I was bad on deleting emails. I have one account that I never use that only has 11,000 some odd emails. 99% of them I never have read.
 
Wow.!! I thought I was bad on deleting emails. I have one account that I never use that only has 11,000 some odd emails. 99% of them I never have read.
Same. I unsubscribe repeatedly but man I tell ya- you donate to a political cause one time and you can’t unsubscribe enough to keep em away :)
 
I have mine set to retain the last 100 or 200 text I think. With few exceptions text have a short useful lifespan.

I'd argue we should all consider deleting old text and emails that are no longer relevant. If something happens and discovery happens I'd hate to have to explain an old txt that lack context and might be used for character assassination.
 
Catch is, you can get charged for destroying evidence. Even if there's no impending or ongoing investigation.
I have no legal expertise, but I have to wonder if that applies if you routinely delete all old texts. I can see how it would be a problem if you only delete texts when there's something potentially incriminating to get rid of.
 
I delete threads from like customer service or 2fa but I don't bother with deleting text from people. Memory is free plus even just one time of a screenshot and snarky "per our previous text" is totally worth it.
 
I have no legal expertise, but I have to wonder if that applies if you routinely delete all old texts. I can see how it would be a problem if you only delete texts when there's something potentially incriminating to get rid of.
That should apply to email too.
 
Catch is, you can get charged for destroying evidence. Even if there's no impending or ongoing investigation.
It's not evidence until an investigation or civil suit becomes a reasonable possibility.
 
It depends, is it before or after the life coach says she can’t f you anymore!
 
who has the time??
And I can see no benefit provided to the phone functionality by doing so. Maybe I have huge storage? (I don't use the cloud).
Besides, it won't prevent any legal incriminations if that is the concern; I constantly read about deleted texts being introduced as evidence and the fact that they were deleted.
 
Well the poll is running at about 2/3 don't delete them, 1/3 do. I'll admit that's way more "delete" answers than I ever expected. Apparently my mom is not unique :D

So it's become a bit of a recurring joke with my mom, her asking if I've deleted them yet, me asking if she's kept them yet, good clean fun.

But yesterday I learned - - - - she deletes calls from her "recent calls" list too! I mean, there are none in there! She answers a call, then when it's done she deletes it from the "recent calls" list. Does anybody else do this? I hope I don't have to start another poll!
 
I never delete texts from people. But if it’s a spam text or from a business, I’ll delete after I’m done with whatever I needed to do with it.
this...mostly
sometimes I'm too busy to even bother with that

Now I am that way about my email inboxes though. I rarely have them empty...but that's my goal. Normally only have a few and my work one is often empty
I generally keep things in the inbox as kind of a to-do.... then either archive or delete. Sadly though I have ended up with a lot of junk buried in the archive...such as emails from my kids' teachers 8 or 10 years ago, thing that I needed to hold for a while that school year but didn't want them cluttering my inbox

I've never considered text messages in the same way though...they pretty much get deleted when my phone dies and I get a new one....
 
But yesterday I learned - - - - she deletes calls from her "recent calls" list too!

Your mom is not a little bit OCD is she?
Maybe has a fantastically clean house etc? I’m jealous of her attention to detail of course, but that would go along with ‘recent call sweeping’!
 
I have no legal expertise, but I have to wonder if that applies if you routinely delete all old texts. I can see how it would be a problem if you only delete texts when there's something potentially incriminating to get rid of.

Funny thing is, in the true crime shows I watch, deleting text messages seems to be a red flag.

If that is the case, I should be on death row as a serial killer. I delete ALL of that ****.
 
Your mom is not a little bit OCD is she?
Maybe has a fantastically clean house etc? I’m jealous of her attention to detail of course, but that would go along with ‘recent call sweeping’!

She's definitely more than a little bit OCD. Never really noticed it growing up, because of course that was "normal" since it's what I grew up with. Then gradually after moving away from home, visiting on holidays and such, it dawned on me how OCD she really is. I remember one time while I was visiting she had three tomatoes on the kitchen counter, the bar part above the sink on the "island", whatever that's called. They were in a nice line. I rearranged them into a triangle. A NICE triangle too. The very next time I walked through they were back in a line. Stuff like that. The house is indeed immaculate.

You should have seen me helping her hang pictures when I was growing up. "No, a little to the left, now a little back to the right, about 1/8" higher, okay right there." And then breaking out a ruler to measure the spacing. It could take 10 minutes to hang one picture. Not even close to an exaggeration.

So the "deleting texts and recent calls" thing doesn't really surprise me. Her email inbox is empty too.

All that said, let there be no mistake, she is a great woman and mom. Dad has just kind of learned to live with it after 57 years.
 
Seriously, I don't care how innocuous it is or non incriminating it is. I HATE JUNK! Yes I keep my inbox clean enough to eat off of, as well as any saved folders.

I do so out of necessity. I can't manage all that crap otherwise or I won't be able to respond to important stuff. Email and texts are intended to be read, then burned in a fire pit then eaten.
 
Catch is, you can get charged for destroying evidence. Even if there's no impending or ongoing investigation.

Ever read Three Felonies a Day? The short of it is that any white collar professional in America is likely to violate various parts of the US Code at least 3x/day.
 
Ever read Three Felonies a Day? The short of it is that any white collar professional in America is likely to violate various parts of the US Code at least 3x/day.
You know you've made it when sub-par effort in the office could be a crime.
 
I seriously fornicate to God why people want to save text messages. Especially from girlfriends.
 
Its not really about wanting to save them. Its that you have to take an action to not save them and its not worth the effort to me to have them gone.
 
Well the poll is running at about 2/3 don't delete them, 1/3 do. I'll admit that's way more "delete" answers than I ever expected. Apparently my mom is not unique :D

So it's become a bit of a recurring joke with my mom, her asking if I've deleted them yet, me asking if she's kept them yet, good clean fun.

But yesterday I learned - - - - she deletes calls from her "recent calls" list too! I mean, there are none in there! She answers a call, then when it's done she deletes it from the "recent calls" list. Does anybody else do this? I hope I don't have to start another poll!

Perhaps in a prior life (before you) she was a secret agent and was trained to not leave a trace. It's perfect too if someone ends up 'missing' and there's no evidence on her phone. Could be a fun story at the next family gathering. You're welcome.
 
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