Modern Etiquette
I'm 46 and have been using computers at work for the best part of twenty five years and at home for five years or so - so I'm not a complete novice in I.T matters but I still don't understand etiquette.
When I was small and received birthday and Christmas presents I would write 'thank-you' letters to everybody who had taken the trouble to send them, Janis was the same and its a tradition we have passed onto Nathalie who, since she was old enough to hold a pen, writes them.
But what about texts and e-mails? *
When people comment on my blog I feel compelled to respond. I don't mind if people don't reply to my replies that could end up creating an endless chain which would be rather silly - similarly I don't expect fellow bloggers to acknowledge my postings, we could end up down Vanity Street here without room to reverse.
But what about texts and e-mails?*
I have lost count of the number of texts and e-mails I send or reply to and hear nothing back. People send me e-mails and I reply and they seem to vanish into the ether - I must add this only applies to home, most of my clients use the 'receipt' facility which is annoying because they can see how long it takes to acknowledge their queries. My record response from a client is 16 seconds, I'm convinced she was just waiting in her office to see if I could be bothered to answer her query!
As for texts, well I don't know why I don't rub the letters out of my keypad because I'm obviously typing in some sort of invisible font - I can type at over 100 w.p.m but my texting is a lot slower so it takes me ages to construct a message even using predictive text but I never get a sodding reply!
* yes, it is meant to be in there twice!
I'm 46 and have been using computers at work for the best part of twenty five years and at home for five years or so - so I'm not a complete novice in I.T matters but I still don't understand etiquette.
When I was small and received birthday and Christmas presents I would write 'thank-you' letters to everybody who had taken the trouble to send them, Janis was the same and its a tradition we have passed onto Nathalie who, since she was old enough to hold a pen, writes them.
But what about texts and e-mails? *
When people comment on my blog I feel compelled to respond. I don't mind if people don't reply to my replies that could end up creating an endless chain which would be rather silly - similarly I don't expect fellow bloggers to acknowledge my postings, we could end up down Vanity Street here without room to reverse.
But what about texts and e-mails?*
I have lost count of the number of texts and e-mails I send or reply to and hear nothing back. People send me e-mails and I reply and they seem to vanish into the ether - I must add this only applies to home, most of my clients use the 'receipt' facility which is annoying because they can see how long it takes to acknowledge their queries. My record response from a client is 16 seconds, I'm convinced she was just waiting in her office to see if I could be bothered to answer her query!
As for texts, well I don't know why I don't rub the letters out of my keypad because I'm obviously typing in some sort of invisible font - I can type at over 100 w.p.m but my texting is a lot slower so it takes me ages to construct a message even using predictive text but I never get a sodding reply!
* yes, it is meant to be in there twice!
5 comments:
What never ever? Are you sure they are getting through. Other than that it may be everyone you text is happy with the info received and too short of cash/credit to acknowledge it.
As an aside around midnight one evening my husband was emailing a company in New Zealand to arrange our holiday. A work email came through from the States to which he instantly replied. The New yorker replied 'Its what time in London?'
Actually since Six has told us about his regular long working days/weeks, that story isn't really very funny any more :(
That was part of the problem actually Lucy. We had offices in Singapore and sydney and often if we couldn't crack a creative problem during normal (hahaha) working hours we'd send the brief overseas and have stuff coming in all night. I used to get so paranoid I'd stay at work to critique and tweak stuff coming through.
God I'm glad i've stopped that now.
Paul, I know what you mean about the response on the blogs.
Sometimes you feel you ought to acknowledge a response, but actually the response in itself was the natural end to the dialogue. It means you then spend ages thinking of something to write, which defeats the spontaneity that is afforded by the blogging process in the first place.
You've hit the nail on the head, Six.
Happily I'm so rude I only acknowledge anything on a whim! :-)
Post a Comment