What I am going to propose below might startle some of you largely due to the fact that most of us don’t follow the simple rule I am about to share with you…and it is so very simple!

Respond in kind. Thats it! (but allow me to ellaborate):

I have broken this down into 2 sections, Type, and Content.

TYPE

This entire idea is based on the premiss that we all want to communicate with eachother smoothly, conveniently and with as little effort as possible. Following that logic I offer you this:

If you receive a telephone call, respond with a telephone call.

If you receive a fax, respond with a fax.

If you receive an email, respond with an email.

If you receive a text message, respond with a text messsage.

If you receive a letter, be kind enough to recognize the time it took to actually write a letter and respond with a letter.

The obvious exception to the rule is if, in the course of the initial communication, you are specifically requested to respond via a different form (i.e. A telephone call requesting you to fax or email a document, or a text message asking you to call when you are on your way to a meeting, etc).

How many of us hide behind our inbox? Why has it become so mind-numbingly impossible to just pick up the phone and behave humanly to eachother? A perfect example, just this morning I received an email from someone that I had left a voicemail for just yesterday. Did this person not know my telephone number? Was the phone system down? or is it more likely that I just wasn’t important enough to be given the respect of a telephone call?

I took the time to call him, but for whatever reason he was just too busy to reciprocate?

This behavior is dehumanizing us all and has a tendency to make the person you are responding to feel awkward. In the instance I describe above the worst possible thing happened, as often does in these instances. In response to my voicemail, I received an email and the message (or tone thereof) was misconstrued. It happens, but add to that the fact that I was already taken aback by the simple fact that this person was apparently avoiding me just exacerbated the feelings of disrespect from them.

Moving on…

CONTENT

Beware, the following information may upset most of the Computer Illiterate on Earth!

I am putting you all on notice: Email is important! sometimes even moreso than spoken communication, and I will tell you why.

During an actual face-to-face conversation you can hear the words, the tone, inflection, speed, etc.

For example, if someone were to say “That’s just GREAT!”, depending on the tone of voice it may indicate excitement, or the contrary–sarcastic or sardonic anger. In an email it is often difficult, if not impossible, to articulate certain phrases like this one.

You will find that most people make a valiant effort to emphasize and explain certain phrases by utilizing creative punctuation and misuse of the italics and bold functions. The problem with this is that there is no universal punctuation guide so utilizing this method may only further complicate things and confuse the receiver. One of my colleagues is an example of the biggest offender in this category as she routinely misuses the exclamation point in an email so you have no idea whether she is expressing happy-excitement or screaming at you.

Moving beyond this, I think it is of equal importance to mention another seemingly obvious fact that escapes the Computer Illiterate mentioned above more than most. Punctuation is important as well. Sentences end with Periods (.). Commas are used as seperators. There are grammatical rules for hyphens (-), colons (:), and semi-colons (;). You are actually supposed to use a capital letter at the beginning of a new sentence and capitalize proper nouns.

Also, the misuse of fancy fonts has run rampant in recent years. The constant misuse of fonts like Comic Sans and Kid Print has reached ridiculous proportions

One long 75 word, lowercase, misspelled run-on sentence is UNACCEPTABLE! You wouldn’t SPEAK like that, so why would you TYPE like that? You certainly wouldn’t write a letter to someone like that, and email is just as important, if not more important.

In essence, they way you communicate is almost like personal hygiene. I would hope that you wouldnt show up at work in your pajamas, having not showered or brushed your teeth and hair and then expect to give a presentation to a group of peers. When the person doesn’t have the benefit of seeing you, it is just that much more important that your communication is clear; that it reflects everything that you are. It should be neat, clean, clear and easy to understand.

Make yourself clear, and show that you actually care how your words or messages are presented to others.

Thanks for reading. Now you can go back and text like children:

I HOPE I C U L8TR