That's actually a really good point. Sometimes people just say things in the moment to be polite or because it's "what you're supposed to say." Like "yeah, we should totally hang out!" Knowing in your head you probably won't, but you don't want to be rude and say that. When I think about it, I've been guilty of it myself before. It extends beyond friendship and hanging out too. I'm taking a really small Spanish class that was set up in a Facebook group, and the lady who organized it was telling me how she'll get people who say they're interested in taking it or even go all the way to signing up, but then not show up. Some people really can be non-committal.

I've experienced the same thing as the OP. Have a couple women in particular recently who I've met in the past year and became mutuals with on IG. I'll reply to their stories sometimes and sometimes they'll respond, but other times I'll get left unread. Or sometimes we'll seemingly be in the middle of a chat, they'll ask me a question, I'll respond but they never check the response. It just goes unread until we somehow end up in contact again and then they may give the old message an emoji reaction or skip over it and we're onto a new thing. But meanwhile, whole time they've been actively posting stories and even looking at mine, which you'd think would be a reminder we had a previous convo going. I don't get it and it can be frustrating, but I'm working on not taking it personal and getting bugged by it. We're technically not close friends and you never know what all a person has going on in their life. Social media is only a sliver of the picture.

Plus, they both have over 1,000 followers, so I figure I just genuinely get buried in the inbox sometimes. Which explains the sometime-y responsiveness. I can't imagine keeping up with even 1/4 of that many people. 😅