This is ego coming into play, and usually ignoring him pokes his ego a little too much. If you’re completely unimportant to him, he won’t notice if you stop contacting him. On the other hand, if you have the slightest bit of importance in his life, he will surely notice the absence of your communication. If your intention is to get his attention by not texting him, then not texting him will work, but a lot goes through his head when you don’t contact him back. He might just get the wrongest or the rightest impression of you! So, do guys care or even notice when you stop contacting them?
Yes, he notices when you stop texting him if…
He’s a lot more likely to notice if you stop contacting him when there’s a deeper connection between the two of you, or when he has particular expectations from this connection. Scenarios where he will care and notice when you don’t text him back (when you stop texting him):
- He’s very into you. If he cares about you, he will care if you don’t text him as well. When a guy is into you, he’s very likely to be aware of your absence, especially if you’re trying to ignore him. Since you matter to him, he notices when you stop texting him due to his awareness and attention towards your behavior and engagement with him.
- He enjoys the text conversations with you. When you’re part of his routine (even if it’s just weekly), he’ll notice when you start minimizing or even cutting off contact with him. If he gets joy from communicating with you, he will notice once you stop communicating with him, it’s logical. So, if your text conversations are fun and enjoyable to him, of course, he will absolutely recognize it if you stop texting or contacting him.
- He’s been playing games. If he’s been playing games with you, it means he’s been involved with you at a particular level. Meaning he’s been engaged in the process and has been observing your behavior and reaction – it’s usually part of the game. Now, despite his response to your lack of contact, he will definitely notice, and it will definitely play with his mind. He could be seeing you as an ego boost, as a source of validation for him, or as someone, he could breadcrumb to fulfill a personal intention. He might get scared he messed up his game, or might play the game harder for it to work on you. Either way, he will notice once you ignore him. It might infuriate him since one of a player’s main intentions is to get attention and admiration.
- You intrigue him. If you’re in the initial stages of dating, and he finds you intriguing, he’s very likely to be curious about you. There doesn’t have to be feelings involved necessarily. All it takes for him to notice you stopped texting is to have curiosity about you. When he’s curious and when he finds you intriguing, he’s more involved in the process of knowing you. So, once you stop texting, or contacting him, he’ll get struck by your absence. He will recognize as soon as the contact is out of its usual paths with you.
- He’s been taking you for granted. He will notice when you’re gone if he’s been taking you for granted and if he’s been lazy in communicating with you. Perhaps you’ve been doing all the work, carrying the text conversation with him, sending the funny texts, asking the questions, and he’s been the one to enjoy it, but not really contribute much to it. Well now that the hard-working converser is out of the picture, the passive one will start realizing some stuff for sure. You’re the one working hard and carrying the conversation while he’s the one to be passive and enjoy without any effort what you’re offering him. In this case, not texting him back will make him aware of your ‘contribution’ in the conversations, and perhaps even make him want you more. That’s because you stop chasing him and you make him notice your presence by giving him a taste of your absence.
No, he won’t notice when you stop texting him if…
On one hand, if you’re close to his heart or at least in mind of his personal intentions towards you, he will note changes in your communication. On the other hand, though, if you’re quite distant from one another, he’s very likely to pay no mind to your text conversations whatsoever. Here are the scenarios in which he won’t recognize when you stop texting him:
- You rarely text one another: there’s a distance (physical and emotional) between you two. If you’re used to one another’s ‘disappearance’ and lack of presence, then he’s likely to not comprehend the fact that you’re ignoring him. This is due to the distance that the lack of consistency of communication creates between two people. If there are no feelings involved on his side, and you just leave him on read with the purpose of ignoring him, unfortunately, he won’t think much of it. Since there’s distance, there’s not much room for him to note any changes in your ways of communicating since it’s something that rarely happens between you.
- Texting isn’t a big deal to him. Someone who doesn’t pay any mind to texting, or doesn’t even take texting seriously won’t recognize anything much. If he’s carefree and careless when it comes to texting he’s more likely to not even be aware that you stopped texting him. That’s because it’s something he doesn’t pay any mind to, therefore he engages with texting way too little to note anything.
- He’s busy. If he’s busy, he’s more prone to not putting much thought into text conversations, because he doesn’t have much time to do so. In this case, he might not recognize that you’re missing from his week, especially if you don’t contact each other very often and aren’t emotionally close with each other. However, if you’re dear to his heart, he’s very likely to understand there’s something off, and to start wondering if everything’s ok.
What will he do when he notices you stopped texting him? – What happens next?
He noticed indeed, now what? Is he going to text you once more, or is he gonna go entirely silent? Well, there are a couple of things that follow the ‘I stopped texting him’ scenario. Here’s what usually happens after you stop texting him:
- He’ll think about it, perhaps a little too much. When you stop texting him and he’s aware of it due to various factors, he’s likely to start thinking about it. Depending on his type and his attachment style, he might even overthink the situation. Especially if you just stopped texting him out of the blue, with no warning whatsoever. However, if you’ve always been the one to text him first, then this might be a good thing for him to take his time, think about it, and reflect on the situation.
- He’ll text or call you. If he gets worried, and this is very unlike you, then he’ll probably text or call you to ease the pace of his thoughts. On the other hand, if his ego got hurt and he feels that you’ve got no right to do this, he’s also likely to text or call you more compulsively. It depends on his type since as we’re going to see below, he might join you in the game of playing with each other’s minds. Despite a healthy or unhealthy connection, he’s very likely to text you or call you once he realizes you’re pulling back and stops texting him.
- He’ll find you more mysterious. If you’re in the early stages of dating and he doesn’t know much about you, once you stop texting him, it’ll play with his mind and he might find you even more mysterious. This could trick him into thinking that you’re very busy, that he’s not of much importance in your life, or that you’re not interested in him.
- He’ll make sure you got the message. He could have the impression that you forgot to reply to him, therefore he’ll make an attempt to find out if you’ve got that message. He might text you again, he might call you, or he might even get worried sick. It entirely depends on the way and the frequency of your communication.
- You might not hear from him. This is very likely to happen, even if he can tell that you’re not texting him any longer. If you stopped texting him and haven’t heard from him you’re one of the many finding being in such a situation. This correlates a lot with attachment styles, types of personalities, and types of connections. So, depending on his attachment style, type of personality, and the type of connection you share with one another (e.g. toxic, or healthy) you might not hear from him after you stop texting him.
- He will decide to play along with you. If he’s a player and he finds bits of play in your behavior he will decide to play along with you and might try to step his game up a little. He might ignore you completely and act cold when you reach back to him or might start acting as if nothing happened.
- He will get more distant and lose interest in you. If he’s in for the real deal, if he’s seeking a genuine connection, he’s more likely to distance himself from you once he finds out games are being played. Since you’re consciously stopping to text him despite his attempts to text you and contact you, then this is a game. If he’s not into mind games, and if he’s genuine, he’s more likely to be repelled by the fact that you’re playing mind games with him.
- He’ll be glad to not contact you again. This is usually one of the signs you’re texting him too much, and one of the signs he wants you to stop texting him. If he’s not interested in you and your presence he’ll be glad to not contact you again. However, after a while, it may occur to him that he’s missing something and that he might have seen you the wrong way. This usually happens a month or more after no contact.
- He’ll be more enthusiastic next time you contact him. In this case, due to fear of your absence next time he’ll try to be more enthusiastic with the purpose of making you stay and respond to his texts regularly. This means he’ll put more effort into the conversation with the intent of preventing you from cutting off contact again. It depends on the connection and the way he thinks. This is one of the least common to happen in such situations.
- He’ll rethink the whole connection. Having no clue why someone just stopped contacting you is a very difficult place and situation to be in. It’s usually unhealthy, and it can really take a toll on that person’s self-esteem and emotional state. At this point, if your contact was consistent, and you suddenly stopped texting him, he’ll be reconsidering the whole connection. Anyone would’ve done the same if a person’s presence would have a negative impact on them.
Lastly, do guys notice when you ignore them?
Yes, whether you’re doing it purposefully or by accident, guys do notice when you ignore them. There are exceptions. If he’s very busy with life, if he has no interest in you whatsoever, and if you barely keep in touch with one another, he won’t notice when you choose to ignore him. Ignoring someone can be very visible to them unless the contact is very consistent, and there’s already an emotional distance between the two of you. Generally, guys absolutely do notice when you ignore them, especially if they’re into you, and if the contact with them is consistent and frequent. Keep in mind that purposefully ignoring someone is very unhealthy and can be very damaging to the other person. If something’s bothering you, choose communication, and be fair to him. Sincerely, Callisto
