Attempt at friendship - Take one

 The first person who reached out to me asked if we could take our time getting to know each other and see where it goes. Now, I appreciate this since I'm not in a rush to jump back into a relationship. See, my last one ended a year ago (it'll officially be a year on February 12th, but anyway...). In that relationship, I experienced the typical ups and downs, the usual arguments, the expected stress... but I also experienced things I hadn't before. Which. Is saying a lot based on my past. But I'll get back to this. I agreed to take things slowly and to get to know each other. We exchanged numbers, and within minutes, I regretted it. Perhaps their behavior has become normal for this day and age, because I do recognize the social norms have changed since I was younger... but if you ask me? This behavior spoke volumes about their character. This individual, whom we'll call Daniel, texted me short messages, mostly complaints about work. That night, he asked if he could call me. I explained that I didn't have time for a phone call, I was going to bed. He called me anyway. I was polite this first time and answered, maybe he hadn't seen the message, who knows... Thirty minutes of being complained to about one co-worker whom they didn't vibe well with, make inappropriate comments to, and express some not-so-nice (violent) thoughts toward... I was told (yes, 97% of the conversation was them at this point), "You sound tired." I reiterated how I was going to bed when they called, and despite having agreed to hang up, he lingered on the phone for another ten minutes, trying to reignite a conversation. After hanging up, he sent me several messages about the conversation and goodnight wishes. Over the next few days, I continued on with my routine, during which I received several messages from him. Again, I understand that people approach relationships differently (friend-wise, family-wise, or romantic-wise); however, I haven't experienced a budding friendship where both parties text constantly throughout the day, every day. Harsh truth? I don't even text the person I'm dating that often. Let alone a friend. When I carved out time to respond to his messages, I ignored the part that contained doubt and accusations and focused solely on the "How are you doing?" part. Despite having done that, it was brought back up anyhow, "I thought you hated me and that's why you weren't answering." I sighed and took a moment before replying. Do people truly believe a cell phone is GLUED to our hands? Maybe I'm too old for this. Maybe I don't have the same values as others. Who knows... But I have a life, and it's one that doesn't center around my phone. And having individuals act entitled, as if they were owed a response the moment the message was sent, really irks me. Your insecurities aren't mine to carry or console. That's inner work you may want to do. External validation only goes so far. And because of this, in my response, I not only reminded them that my phone isn't my world, but also asked about any involvement in therapy. (Now, this wasn't me coming from a place of judgment; it was a curiosity question to get more insight on where their progress was and how to proceed.) He enlightened me to his viewpoint on therapy, which was that other people need it, but he's got his stuff in check and is good to go. Essentially, another way of saying, other people are the problem, not me. Even though I had established a boundary with him, he continued to push it by texting me multiple times in a room, several times a day, and dressed it up as concern for me. He also made comments about how he wanted to cuddle with me, kiss me, and some other inappropriate text messages... I had enough. I let him know I was no longer comfortable speaking with him due to the crossing of boundaries. At this, he argued with me that those boundaries shouldn't exist. He tried to convince me that friends do things like kiss, cuddle, use pet names, etc. all of the time. I told him that it was not something I did with my friends and I wasn't going to start now. Thankfully, they stopped texting me after that. Though, the next one I met wasn't any better...