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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Pet Peeve: Installment 1

It seems like lately, things have been getting on my nerves. The same things...over and over. I am going to try to use this blog as a way to purge my mind of these annoyances. I'm sure you'll be able to relate to some and maybe even get a kick out of it.

Reply All isn't that hard

In the last couple of weeks, it seems like I have had to be an event planner in my personal life. I don't know what is going on with people but they seem to have forgotten that communication is key when planning even the smallest gathering. We all need to know where, when, and how or it's not going to happen, right? With all the networking tools we have today it should be easier. Apparently not.

I've had two situations, one with a group of five and one with a trio, where an idea for a gathering was started with an email and then everyone suddenly stopped hitting Reply All. In the first case, communication stopped completely, verbal agreements were made between two of the five, and suddenly the rest of us were completely lost on what was going on! In the second case, I sent an email invite to two friends, one replied all, and the third....sent me a text with a possible date and time she was free. A text? Obviously you are reading the email so why are you texting just me? Hit Reply all and ask both of us.

So then I txt back, "Yeah, I can but we'll have to see if E can do it". Then nothing. So here I am the next morning and I pull up our email thread and I have to Reply all and say EM txt me she can do it this time, what about you E?" All of this could have been avoided if EM had just hit reply all.

It makes no sense to me. It's like we have too many forms of communication and people just can't decide what to use anymore. Remember ten years ago when we just had email? No Twitter, no social networking, no texting, no Evite. Remember a few years before that when we just had phones? Paper invites?

I have been considering an "Open House" day for my apartment so anyone that hasn't stopped by, can. I'm worried that unless I send a paper invite that looks official (like I put a little time in it) I'm going to get some e-replies and a bunch of no-shows.

What do you think? Does this happen to you? Are people forgetting the basics of communication and planning because we rely so heavily on all our fun new tools?

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I appreciate and welcome your comments. I will be moderating them though. Honestly, I don't swear and I take pride in my education so do your best to use proper language and grammar. Being passionate is one thing. Sounding like an idiot...just makes you sound like an idiot.