Post Later, Remind Me Later

I find it funny that I too find myself caught up in a trend. I used to tease my friends about ignoring my calls and texting me right after. Ugh! But, now, I too prefer to text than call. It’s crazy! I blame the influence of this generation. They prefer to communicate with each other via text message in place of causal conversation:

• What time are you out of class?
• Do you want to eat lunch together?
• What are you doing?

But as I get heavily involved in my professional career I find myself exchanging direct communication:

• Running late, on my way
• Review the attached document and edit it to your liking
• Confirm that you will be in attendance at our next meeting

If it wasn't for caller ID, you’d never know who called you because you barely answer the phone or at least I don’t. I also get impatient and find myself just deleting the voicemails before listening to it and just texting back, “What did you call for?" 

I found an interesting article that I’d thought was relevant to share, Disruptions: Digital Era Redefining Etiquette. This article uncovers the un-normal norms. What was once normal is now foreign to people.

Voicemail lost its purpose because people expect a text message rather than a voicemail.  I mean think about how long it takes to access your voicemail and actually listen to those lengthy messages. It may seem time consuming compared to shooting a quick text message to someone. Phone companies made it even easier for us to comply with this lazy way of communicating. For iPhone users, have you noticed the reply with message option and for droid users, have you noticed the reject call with message option? They are encouraging us to ignore calls! Why?!

It’s amazing how many socials norms just don’t make sense anymore. People are SO wrapped up in  digital communication that they lose touch with the polite and civilized ways people used to interact. Rather than just asking someone for directions, they prefer to Google something on their smartphone. Technology is taking away from our interpersonal skills. The author mentioned when he asked a friend for something that could be easily discovered on the internet, his friend responded with, lmgtfy.com, which means Let Me Google That For You. Aha! Now, that’s rude!

Fun Fact: "Google" became a transitive verb on June 15th, 2006 in the Oxford English Dictionary

But it's true! People lost their touch. Take the smartphone for instance, there’s an app for everything! You have a widget for weather, contacts, maps, store hours, and so much more. People no longer have a reason to have a conversation with someone nor ask any questions. It seems as unnecessary communication to this generation!  Why ask someone something that I can simply access by the ends of my fingertips? It’s even a verb! When my fellow classmates ask a question and are not sure about the answer, they would suggest, “You should Google that!”

The article hits home for me and I’m sure it will for you too. Will our politeness die out? Is it no longer a trending topic? Let’s hope our forms of communication become important again.