The two most-dreaded words in a text conversation

It contained no punctuation and didn’t explain whether the request was an emergency or nothing to worry about. Did someone die, or did the family member just need help logging into Netflix?

“It creates a sense of urgency where it’s not needed," says Seefried, a 39-year-old communications manager who lives in Annapolis, Md. It turned out the family member wanted to chat about Christmas plans.

The text annoyed him so much that Seefried posted about the exchange on X, where it received more than 32,000 likes and 5,000 comments with people commiserating.

He isn’t alone in his anguish. For years, people have complained about receiving “call me" texts from parents, siblings, colleagues and bosses.

Much like how generations interpret emojis differently and Apple’s tapback message reactions don’t mean the same thing to everyone, the meaning—and urgency—of “call me" isn’t consistent. If “call me" comes with a GIF or an emoji, it could mean the conversation isn’t serious. Used with a period, some may interpret it as a sign of trouble. No punctuation could indicate there’s an emergency.

“I can’t just drop everything to call you," Seefried says. “I need to know whether or not it’s an emergency."

Raiford Dalton Palmer received a “call me" text years ago from his then-fiancé (now wife), Juli Gumina. The two co-own STG Divorce Law, a law firm in Chicago, and though they were never far from each other in the office, they didn’t see much of each other during the day, which made the text even more terrifying.

“I remember the first time she did that, I had a catch in my throat," says Palmer, 55. He can’t remember what she actually wanted, only that it wasn’t serious.

He makes sure to include why he needs someone to call him, writing “Please call me—no rush" or “Please call when you can" and mentioning the subject.

“It just takes a couple more taps on the keyboard to let somebody know it’s not immediate," he says.

Even as they have moved to working from home, Gumina, 55, still texts Palmer—and many others at the firm—to call her. She says she knows she’s not “the best texter in the world" and can come off as “direct." But she has tried to be more thoughtful, texting “please call me, not urgent" or “call me when you have a second" instead of the simpler but more alarming “call me."

“I keep it short, but I will at least put a little context for them so they don’t panic or get upset," Gumina says.

Incessant “call me" texts can become so overused that people end up taking their time to phone.

Ashley DeSanno, a 44-year-old small-business owner and parenting content creator, receives “call me" texts all the time from her 70-year-old mother.

Her mother hates texting, so a “call me" text could be anything from picking out a new toaster to sharing medical results, she says. It happens so much that DeSanno and her sister now don’t take “call me" texts seriously, she says.

“We have become so relaxed when she texts us ‘call me,’" says DeSanno, who lives in Portland, Ore. She says they’ve asked their mother to stop but she hasn’t.

“I love my mom, and I don’t think it’s intentional at all," she says. “Technology is just harder when you haven’t grown up with it."

Instead, DeSanno fears she’s turning into her mother, as she sometimes texts her son “call me" when it’s not actually urgent.

The “call me" complaints on social media tend to come from younger people who receive the message from older relatives. But not always.

Faith Meyers, a 36-year-old family lawyer in Marshfield, Wis., receives such texts from both her 63-year-old mother and her 11-year-old daughter.

“Sometimes she wants to talk to me or she wanted to tell me something that happened at school," says Meyers. “It’s never been an emergency."

Meyers’s mother usually only texts “call me" because she wants to chat. But each “call me" text still makes Meyers apprehensive. If it’s actually an emergency situation, it would take her about five hours to get to her mom.

“It’s my mother or it’s my daughter sending that—that’s kind of what makes me panic a little bit," she says.

Those sending the “call me" texts don’t understand what the fuss is about.

Cindy Chang, a 48-year-old clinical health, weight-loss and wellness coach in Brooklyn, N.Y., frequently spams her 18-year-old son.

She calls him on FaceTime, texts him, and then continues to do both over and over when he doesn’t answer. She calls to find out when he’s coming home, what he wants to eat or what groceries to buy—all conversations Chang sees as important enough to warrant a call (or several).

Chang says while her son isn’t a fan of her “call me" messages, she loves them because they let her “be immature and bratty" with her son.

“I try to bring more fun and joy into our relationship even though it irritates him," Chang says.

A less joyful time to receive a brief, unspecific text about a call? At work.

Eric Fischgrund, a 40-year-old founder of FischTank PR, a communications and media-relations firm in New York, got a “can you talk today," text last winter from one of his biggest clients at the time.

The client’s chief marketing officer, whom Fischgrund had known for years, asked to chat in a few hours. While friendly, the two don’t text regularly. Fischgrund spent the next agonizingly slow hours wondering if he was about to lose his client, face a public crisis or if the executive was leaving the company.

The client ended up wanting to talk about brand consolidation that turned out to be months away.

“Anytime I receive a message along the lines ‘Can we talk?’ ‘Do you have a second?,’’ I always brace myself," Fischgrund says. He shared his panicked thoughts with the client, who laughed it off and shared with a colleague of his “Tell Eric I said I’m sorry for scaring the hell out of him."

Write to Ann-Marie Alcántara at ann-marie.alcantara@wsj.com