Quickly! Busy yourself!

Have you ever tried to talk to someone (online or offline) who suddenly starts busying themselves (or saying they're busy doing some other trivial thing) just to not talk to you?

It's happened quite a few times online to me, though I'm not quite sure whether the person was actually busy or not, and now I feel stupid because I would always say sorry to them just because I said hi and they suddenly said they're busy. I mean, I shouldn't say sorry because it's sort of obvious that whoever does that doesn't like me, so I shouldn't have bothered in the first place. Anyway, offline, I remember it happening when I tried to say thank you to a man for letting us stay at his camp for this Unitown camp thing, and he shook my hands and ran into his car to leave as fast as he could. I wonder why o_o It hasn't happened to me that often offline, considering I don't talk to many people besides my friends, who wouldn't do that unless they were actually busy.

If they're on msn and busy, they should make their status busy, if not then they should expect you to talk to them :p I don't think it's really happened much. Some of the people I talk to lately are busy a lot, and have become busy when I've come on a few times, but I imagine it's by coincidence, I have also been busy pretty and sometimes just disappear or whatever. When you get more going on in your life I think you tend to worry less about being polite on msn..

If they just didnt wanna talk to you, they'd block you, so don't worry about it :p People are busy a lot, it's just an annoying thing about life. Not enough time.... and in real life, no I can't think of anything.

I've done a few times, but not because I didn't want to talk to the person, but because I get shy sometimes and I don't know what to say. xD

I usually do this only to creepy people like NANNY MANUS. :(

Sometimes when people message me, I am rather emotional and do not wish to bother to take the time to talk about whatever little petty thing they have to say, because perhaps I *am* doing something more important with someone more important to me than they.

You gotta stop being so transparent, tan.

I don't always bother changing statuses. If I say I'm busy, then I am. Maybe I'm busy talking to someone else on MSN?

I agree with those, especially rubah, (sometimes if I feel crap I dont even wanna speak to the most important people) but I just mean if you're really too busy and are going to get annoyed with people talking to you use the status. Otherwise yeah, maybe you are busy with someone else or whatever. Though that's why I whittled my msn list to pretty much a few people, so I don't get that. Just one annoyng thing about online conversation you can never really tell whats going on with the other person.

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Originally Posted by tan

Have you ever tried to talk to someone (online or offline) who suddenly starts busying themselves (or saying they're busy doing some other trivial thing) just to not talk to you?

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Haha, I'm the kind of person that does this. :D but yeah like Xander, I also got rid of most of the people on my list. Well, not got rid of, but I got a new address. Just cause I hated talking to 5 or 6 people at the same time while trying to surf the net. I can't do it. I try to keep it to 3 people at the max! So if you're the 4th person, sorry man (Not that I am speaking to anyone in particular when I say "you").

And like Rye I also get very shy, feel like I'm not entertaining enough, etc.

Usually I just set as my status as busy/away constantly; people who know me well enough know that it's a lie and they talk to me anyways~ If at any point I really am busy doing homework or something, I find it's entirely better to just not be on MSN at all. :p Way too distracting.

I know someone who used to set his status to "away" as soon as I would sign in. I don't know why. He's always the one who starts conversations.

I hope not. :(

If there's someone I don't like then I just go "omg look over there! :eek:" and then I block them when they're looking the other way.

Actually I don't have this problem because the only ones who talk to me on MSN is Rye, Psy, Cz and the occasional theundeadhero, DK and Mullet.

If I don't want to talk with you, I either change my status to avoid these "problems", or simply say 'smurf you' or simply close their window as soon as it appears in the lower right-hand part of my window.

I have done it with one particular person who could not take a hint nobody here though. But with mostly anyone else i ignore them and they'll know i just don't feel like talkin if im in a cruddy mood.

If I'm really busy I'll tell them I can't talk because I am busy. If I just don't feel like talking, which is rare but does happen occassionally, I'll tell them I just don't feel like talking.

I prefer honesty. :)

I do it a whole lot. Has it happened to me ? Probably...

Some pedophile IMed me so I said "NO I WILL NOT HAVE THE BUTTSECKS WITH YOU" and then he cried.

No, no one's ever done that to me. Sometimes I go on AIM to see if someone's on and then someone else talks to me, so I pull that on them though.

I have no problem saying, 'I don't feel like talking to you right now.' And blocking momentarily seems to work just as well.

Usually I am AFK, so I don't notice the person was trying to contact me until they have been signed off for a while.

Personally, I would rather just have people tell me they are busy, my feelings are not so delicate that I could not handle this.

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Originally Posted by Levian

If there's someone I don't like then I just go "omg look over there! :eek:" and then I block them when they're looking the other way.

Actually I don't have this problem because the only ones who talk to me on MSN is Rye, Psy, Cz and the occasional theundeadhero, DK and Mullet.

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I pity them. :(

Why would I go through an elaborate ruse like that? I just tell them to go away and that I don't want to talk to them.

I never do that. I'm not that dishonest.

Others don't do that to me.

I am guilty of doing this. ._. Its not to be mean but saying that I'm a little tied up is nicer than going, "Don't have time for you right now, lolz." Its not usually a lie though since I'm always so busy with like ten other IMs at once from the RP. @_@

Also, my messengers mess up a lot and usually I have trouble with gettings IMs when directly connected to others or recieving files. -shrugs-

I do occasionally not talk for extended periods of time on Chat due to me being preoccupied with something else, but I almost always change my name to show that, and I never do it to avoid speaking to somebody, no matter how much I dislike them. Then again, I really don't hate anybody on these forums.

There is one person that I admittedly try to avoid. He's a great friend and all but he's 22 and he asks me for advice...me, a measly 16 year old girl who's still trying to find her identity in the world :( So I try to avoid talking to him for that reason, plus, he's ALWAYS asking me ten million questions about this 'n that....So I tell him I'm busy which in all honesty, I am too busy to deal with his problems when I have ten million of my own that I need to sort out first...

I just don't answer.

Yeah i do it, simply as a means of i'm not not bothered talking anymore. Alot of the time i don't answer anyways. If i'm talking to a close friend i'll tell them what i'm really doing, if i need time to surf the net or whatever. On the flipside, i'm sure it's probably happened to me some time.

I only say I'm going to go and do something if I actually am going to go and do it. If I'm busy, I'll say it. If I'm not and I don't want to talk to them, I just won't reply.

But 99% of the time I really am busy, usually on the phone.

This is of course the awkward thing about MSN - unlike face to face conversations, people can't see that you're already talking to someone else :p

In most cases with me, I'm not "busying myself" but there are in fact 3 or 4 other people clamoring for my attention too (that's what you get for being a popular guy! :D hehe). Nobody's necessarily more important than the other, so the time just has to get divided.

I also tend to use MSN as a background chat, so I'll already be surfing or playing a game or whatever and holding a conversation in the background as a second priority. Send a message, play for 10 minutes, send another, etc. I suppose email would be more suited to me, but it's a habit.

The problem arises with those contacts who feel, for whatever reason, that they should be your top priority (e.g. they think they're more important than they are, or they have self-confidence issues and think that you're deliberately ignoring them). They expect you to give them your undivided attention when they're chatting to you, and don't appreciate it when you're doing something at the same time or dealing with other conversations. Once you've got 2 or more of these on your list, things start getting awkward.

I've never used block, but I can see the temptation when that happens.

If they do that I usually just block them. I don't waste my time on people who have little purpose in my contact list.

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

I only say I'm going to go and do something if I actually am going to go and do it. If I'm busy, I'll say it. If I'm not and I don't want to talk to them, I just won't reply.

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This is true for me too, unless if I'm too busy to reply I won't reply either. I usually forget to change my status. :jess: