Written by, Oct. 30 -- Deshna Jain, Garima Rajan

Simply seeing these few words on a screen, an unanswered message has the power to surprisingly keep our minds playing detective for hours. Let's say you send a text message to someone close to you. Ten minutes pass. Then twenty. You check your phone repeatedly. Eventually, you notice that they were online. Maybe they even saw your message. And suddenly, a lack of response from their side raises questions such as 'Are they angry with me?' 'Did I say something wrong?' 'Are they purposefully ignoring me?'

The irony is that we usually have no idea what is actually happening on the other side of the screen. They could be busy at work, distracted by their surroundings, or even asleep. Yet the s...