First, I must admit, I am now old enough to sometimes feel overwhelmed by new social media options. However, I think I am also old enough to offer a perspective and some practical ways to manage the new communication landscape.
Back in the day I had to write thank-you notes – in a timely fashion, after receiving gifts on a holiday. There were acceptable formats, lengths, and topics for these notes along with the acceptable time window. Today it seems we are in the wild west of communication times. There are many choices, grammars, and seemingly few rules of any sort to frame how we “talk” with one another aside from face to face. I have heard many examples of emails gone awry causing hurt feelings and serious misunderstandings. How much context can one squeeze into a tweet? How well can the whole story be told in a text?
I hasten to add that this is a fabulous new set of tools. We live in amazing times and the possibilities offered by them are seemingly endless. Our world can be one world as never before. But we haven’t yet evolved new frameworks and etiquettes for the use of each of these media. I have looked at sites that offer rules of etiquette and they are useful. They consider when and where it’s appropriate to use different media for example (www.southuniversity.edu/tech-etiquette-rules-using-good-manners-withyour-devices-132068.aspx, www.kaneconsulting.biz/…/ms-kanes-guide-to-social-media-etiquette/)
However, I want to talk about a more subtle issue. I suggest that, first, before automatically responding, you pause, (oh so hard today, this first step!) and reflect on the sender, the topic, and the importance of the subject to the sender and to you the ‘sendee’. Is this personal, or a work issue? Does this merit a real “face to face?” Is it that urgent, important? Are things that off-course? No? Does this message ask for more context, more facts, a story? An email, then, or a phone call. If not, is just a word, a confirmation, a simple additional fact required? Go ahead, shoot me a text, or a tweet. I know someone who adds his own expressions, spelling, and emoticons to his personal messages ensuring that they will be clearly understood. And the other step – edit! Read over what you have written, or thought you had written before you hit send. It’s amazing what a misspelling, autocorrect, or a deletion can become or infer. Even though I disliked writing those thank-you notes, I’m now grateful for the guidelines that process instilled in me.