Among Friends

[libbyannE]

People are not required to be at your beck and call and respond to you. In business, I required my department to reply to customers within a day, but now that I am retired, I am free to check emaiks a couple of times a week. I love it! I was tethered to the office 24/7 in my career, but I feel no need to remain tethered in that way now. If something is critical, people CALL me.

[AnikaBrodie]

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@proudlyfromNJ wrote:

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@AnikaBrodie wrote:

Texting?  Rarely do it and I mean rarely

Phone?  Sometimes, if I have to

Face to face?  There you go. 

Note:  We've really lost the art of communication.

Hello @hckynut ... Hope you and your wife and all the felines are doing well.  Happy spring.

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@AnikaBrodie.  Sometimes it's not that easy. My small family live 4 states away and in another country across the world. If it wasn't for texting and FaceTime and phone, I would be out of luck. You do what you have to do. 

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@proudlyfromNJ

In your case I can fully understand texting and phone calls.  In my case it's superfluous.  Fortunately, my family is close by.    I have a cell phone but it is not attached to my person and I sometimes don't even have it with me.

[on the bay]

No, I do get it.

The same people who don't respond, don't respond to a phone call, text, email, until they are good and ready.

Its only frustrating to me when you are planning something together like a 95th birthday party or something really special.

I've learned not to be part of a group plan thing like this again with these same relatives if at all possible but rely on people who like to communicate and respond to each other.

I wouldn't consider that "type A", just common sense and courtesy. 

[lovesrecess]

I have been told that only "old people" aka moms, text in complete words or sentences. I am guilty of this since I get the infuriating auto responses from one daughter saying she is busy and can't talk.  Grrrr....I may text her once a month at the most and only to get info.

[NYC Susan]

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@shoptilyadropagain wrote:

If I can't understand a garbled text, I have NO problem in replying and telling them so.

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Me neither.  It's easy enough to let them know you don't understand.  Or just text back a question mark.  I've done that many times when something wasn't clear.  Then they text back and clarify.

[NYC Susan]

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@proudlyfromNJ wrote:

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@AnikaBrodie wrote:

Texting?  Rarely do it and I mean rarely

Phone?  Sometimes, if I have to

Face to face?  There you go. 

Note:  We've really lost the art of communication.

Hello @hckynut ... Hope you and your wife and all the felines are doing well.  Happy spring.

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@AnikaBrodie.  Sometimes it's not that easy. My small family live 4 states away and in another country across the world. If it wasn't for texting and FaceTime and phone, I would be out of luck. You do what you have to do. 

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Exactly.  My family lives literally all over the world.  Face to face very rarely happens, and being in vastly different time zones makes phone calls difficult.  So I rely on texting and emailing and Facebook and Instagram and anything else that makes it possible to keep us all in touch and feeling closer.  

Apart from that, I think we all need to give our friends and family the benefit of the doubt.  If someone doesn't reply to a text, I assume they're involved in something else. Maybe their phone is off or they're tending to a sick child, or at a movie, or on a plane, or whatever.  If people don't text me back right away, I'm fine with it.  My friends, family, and I have busy lives, and we cut each other a lot of slack.  No one has to hurry to text me back immediately, or reply to an email the moment they get it.  I don't want to be on-call to anyone, so I more than understand people who feel the same.  Of course if something is urgent, it requires a reply right away, but the vast majority of the time there's very little that can't wait.  I don't put pressure on the people I care about, and I'm very grateful that they also don't put pressure on me.

[NYC Susan]

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@libbyannE wrote:

People are not required to be at your beck and call and respond to you. In business, I required my department to reply to customers within a day, but now that I am retired, I am free to check emaiks a couple of times a week. I love it! I was tethered to the office 24/7 in my career, but I feel no need to remain tethered in that way now. If something is critical, people CALL me.

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Yes!  I just posted before I read this, but you and I are very much on the same wavelength.

I have a friend who, after leaving a voicemail, will often then text to let me know that it's not urgent so I'll know I don't need to listen to it right away.  Many times we end our voicemails to each other with, "No need to call back if you're busy."  We've been friends for more than 30 years, and she's a wonderful friend who has been with me through a lot of tough times.  I really appreciate the way she respects my time and doesn't expect me to jump every time she gets in touch.  And if she doesn't text or call back right away, I assume she's involved in something else, and that's more than okay with me.

[NYC Susan]

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@lovesrecess wrote:

I have been told that only "old people" aka moms, text in complete words or sentences. I am guilty of this since I get the infuriating auto responses from one daughter saying she is busy and can't talk.  Grrrr....I may text her once a month at the most and only to get info.

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I text regularly with people of all ages (youngest is age 13), and other than some common acronyms, they all nearly always use complete words and sentences.  I'm a Mom and would probably be considered "old people", but I sometimes abbreviate or give one-word responses.  So what you've been told is just a generalization.  I'm sure there are people in every age group who text in complete words & sentences and people who don't.