I've found that a lot of people get irritated with me because I never "respond" to their messages, when in reality I only ignore a very small percentage of messages. So, let me explain the process of messaging me so that you'll know exactly what happens. I rarely ever keep my IM windows on my screen, they're always covered up by other windows, and usually my phone is somewhere across the room. I rely solely on the notification sound to tell me that I've received a new message. In the case of my phone, I only use the vibrate settings (which is actually quite loud when sitting on a hard surface) and never use a ringtone. Sometimes, if I'm really focused on something, I merely don't hear anything. Yes, I do get that into some of my programming things sometimes, and when you're playing a game, it can also get quite loud and harder to hear notifications. I do try to check on my messages on my computer and on my phone every once in a while just to make sure I didn't miss anything.