My built-in excuse for not seeing text messages over the past month has gone away.

Like millions of Pennsylvanians, I’ve felt the barrage of texts urging me to vote, donate or, sometimes, simply “stay informed.”

It got to the point where when the infamous chime sounded on my phone, I didn’t even dig it out of my pocket. I would later pay the price for that.

Sometimes it was my wife telling me to stop at the store. Sometimes it was my wife telling me to pick our daughter up from dance or another activity. Sometimes it was my wife telling me her car needed gas and Hallmark is already playing Christmas movies so she really couldn’t run out and do it. It was my wife a lot.

But when the texts were not coming from my wife, they were election related.

“Sorry, I thought another person urgently needed $5 to reach voters in Pennsylvania,” was my standard answer when I missed something.

During the 2024 election cycle, campaign groups heavily leaned on text messaging, especially in battleground states like Pennsylvania, to maximize voter reach. It’s estimated that Pennsylvanians received hundreds of thousands of these messages across the election season, with each major campaign running full steam ahead to capture the attention of every possible voter.

Why the uptick in text messages this year? A lot has to do with cost and engagement rates. Television ads can be exorbitantly expensive, with an estimated $125 million spent on presidential campaign ads in Philadelphia alone. Texting is far cheaper and yields higher rates of interaction — at least in theory.

Let’s be real though, the texts went from useful reminders to full blown spam.

When I see “Do you have a minute?” on my screen now, I brace myself. “Do I have a minute? Not if you’re asking for a last-minute donation, I don’t!”

And they’re incredibly personal.

“Hi there! Just wanted to make sure you’re voting next Tuesday. Your polling location is 0.5 miles from your home! Are you on your way now?” I mean, the message knows my polling location, my ZIP code and probably what I had for breakfast. It’s like having a very needy pen pal I never signed up for.

The stakes were high, and I get that. Pennsylvania’s swing-state status meant every tool in the toolbox would be utilized.

So here’s to this week, when we can take a breather. No more interruptions from the mysterious “one-question” surveys. We’ve survived the text-pocalypse. Even Facebook might go back to pictures of people’s cats. For four more years at least.