Blackberry and Texting Etiquette

An increasingly large number of my clients are getting Blackberrys (or is it Blackberries…) and other texting devices. After all, it’s a tried-and-tested technology for those on the move. But speed and convenience seems to be leading to short replies that may be misinterpreted…

When your email is routed to your Blackberry and you want to reply, it’s relatively straightforward: type and send. However, the nature of the devices tends to mean that quick, one-liners are the norm. I often get these in reply, with a message footer “Sent from my Blackberry”. I know that a short and often abrupt-seeming reply is nothing more than that. Be careful, however, if you’re replying to a client or someone who may be a little more sensitive.

Interpretation of email and text messages can be very mixed. I, for one, am guilty of misunderstanding a sentence or two as mean something quite different than intended by the sender. The written messages don’t reflect the tone of the sender, so it’s prudent to take a moment and consider how the message may be interpreted.

Am I too concerned? Perhaps. But if someone sends you an email, for example “is this the best offer we can get” and you, caught up in a thousand other things, respond “yes” on your texting device, will your client think you’re being a little abrupt…even rude because they’re used to you explaining youself in “regular” email or on the phone? Will they understand BRT, LMAO or CUL8R? For those who would like to know more, here is a list of text abbreviations from Webopedia.

As technology moves forward and communication gets quicker, it’s easy to forget that what you meant to say and how it was perceived can be very easily blurred.

Here’s a Top 10 list of SMS etiquette tips from WirelessDevNt.com.

Don’t text and drive!

Dave

Texting a signal of wider trend (BBC).

Does convenience trump thoughtfulness?

Maybe it’s just the time of year or perhaps it’s the spell for rather chilly weather we’re having here in the “Valley of the Sun”, but (as you can tell from previous posts), I’ve been thinking much about electronic communication of late.

When email and instant messaging first debuted on what was then a fledgling Internet, there was some debate as to the social acceptance of these communication methods. Firing off an email is quicker and easier than writing or typing a letter. It’s also cheaper and timelier. More often than not, you can even tell whether it’s been received and read.

Yes the pervasion of these rapid forms of communication have, to some degree, added an air of casualness (is that even a word??) to discourse. What was once considered socially unacceptable has become the norm. By that I mean abbreviations, spelling, typos and grammar. This is a double-edges sword. E-communication has allowed the expansion of business and social networking like nothing before. Some would say that the removal of old fashioned “rules” is a necessary part of an evolution in how we communicate. Others would mourn the lowering of acceptable standards. I’m sure rain forests would agree on the side of evolution.

Apart from the ease with which we now converse and the debate over acceptability of presentation, many electronic systems have made life easier. Beyond email and instant messaging, we now have blogs and social media sites such as ActiveRain, LinkedIn and Twitter. It’s possible to conceive a thought, put it into words and publish it to the world almost instantly. Go back just a decade and consider how far we’ve come.

Yet has this ease of communication come to the detriment of thoughtfulness?

There are some who would consider the purchase of a gift card to be an easier and less thoughtful present than purchasing an actual gift. Others would see it as giving the recipient the option to choose what they would like. By the same token, could buying something online , having it wrapped “automatically” and sent directly to the recipient, be considered as less thoughtful than going to a store, buying, wrapping and shipping a gift?

Taken a step further, is sending a greeting card using an online service, less meaningful than hand-writing each card, affixing a stamp and mailing it?

For the record, I do all of the above. I am a regular shopper at Amazon.com. Most of my family lives overseas and it’s both easier and cheaper to shop on a localized website (i.e. Amazon in the UK) and have the gift wrapped and shipped instead of having to do it from here.

I use Send-Out-Cards for greeting cards. I can keep my address book online, select a card, “write” my message and send it without leaving my computer. The recipient gets a card with a nicely hand-written-esque font.

Does this mean I care less than I should? Am I taking the easy way out?

From my side of the fence I think not. I could understand all the arguments opposing my view. It’s a matter of perspective. Electronic communication, in all it’s forms, whether email or electronic-to-physical card, has made life more convenient. It has, for me, made me more reliable. I want to send greeting cards and gifts. I still take the time to pick them out. I choose my words carefully (most of the time – see my email post). I know that I care.

It’s the thought that counts after all, isn’t it?