Communication // writing
Dave Shea’s recent article lambasting the rudeness of a correspondant, tripped a few home truths for me.
In the recent past I’ve spent a large amount of time ebaying, almost full-time some weeks. This has lead to a fascinating insight into the community that surrounds the site and also some of the communities within that.
Nothing but fields
No-one really thinks of ebay as “Web 2.0”, but they’ve been doing communities and ‘user generated content’ since before gradient fills were a design prerequisite. One thing that ebay shares with the diggs and myspaces of the world is the social aspect of the services.
Some of the most terrifying stuff from the aforementioned sites is the user generated communication as described (in blogs) by Jason Lynes’ comments analysis. When reading the Britpack or other well respected sites in the industry the level of comments – however fawning :-) – would indicate the web is full of civiliity and thoughtfulness.
Could we be further from the truth? The experience of reading comments on Myspace or even reviews on iTunes can be an exercise in decryption. You might think you could put this mangling of English on the web down to the txtspeak generation (unless you thought they weren’t the main users). However you’d expect a more balanced community in terms of age to be more eloquent. Wouldn’t you?
Ranter
I returned from a long weekend holiday to this sitting in my email:
…Just received Book You Charged �5:00 For Postage And Packing Sorry Cant See Any Packing It Was Wrapped In JUST BROWN PAPER and arrived in a terrible state The BOOK IS FALLING TO BITS IT IS ONLY FIT FOR THE BIN TO BE HONEST. This is quite the worst situation I have ever had on EBay And I purchased Hundreds Of Items I am Just short of being disgusted by it all.Your comments would be appreciated as soon as possible.I am sure we can sort this out amiclebly however this was the missing link in my complete collection so you can see how dissapointed I am and returning it is not really the answer. Kindest regards [name deleted]
and also this (from the same author):
I am suprised that you have not replied to my email at all as I never asked for a refund or That I stated returning was NOT THE Answer either.
In fact I have Reoaired the item with super glue and celotape it’s not good but it is in the collection now, but I will certainly replace it !!!!!!!. I also noticed you have not given me feed back as yet I always was led to belive that when the seller received remit that cued feedback and you had your money QUICK ENOUGH so please complete feedback. I did ONLY ask you for your comments maybe you will get round to this SOON.
Kindest Regards [name deleted]
Now I’d sent approximately 300 packages using the Royal Mail by this point and this was one of a couple of packages that, rather than ferrying the item in perfect condition as in 99% of cases, had obviously just been used for some sort of warehouse sporting event to the point of destruction. This stuff happens when you send things through the post – I’ll leave my rant on the Post Office for another time.
I’ve got two main problems with this 1) the quality of the writing and 2) the rudeness.
Writing
I have a friend who when listing reasons for finishing with a university girlfriend said “She used too many exclamation marks in her text messages”. I understood what he was getting at. I’ve only highlighted this email as it contains the sins of many others.
- Multiple question marks
- random capitalization of First letters Of Words
- Different spellings of the same word
- Awful punctuation
- Basic lack of a first readthrough to the point that the message is illegible
In his defence however he did attempt punctuation and the use of cases. Which is more than can be said for many of his esteemed colleagues. It seems even my mother now knows that THIS IS CONSIDERED SHOUTING.
It’s all very well having a connected world where everyone expresses themselves but being understood is also an issue! I can accept the odd typo or mistake, we’re not machines, but it must take effort to put together so much unreadable nonsense. I can’t tell whether it’s technological ineptitude, lack of education or lack of bother – but whatever it is I don’t like it.
Rudeness and Personal Communication
We did eventually sort out the correspondent’s grievance – I was happy to refund his payment and claim from the post office (as I did in the other cases). The method I chose to do this was sending him my mobile number and having a chat. It’s much less easy to be rude when you’re having a real conversation: when you are actually communicating you can achieve something, whether it’s getting a refund or asking a favour. Even better if you can do it in person.
This is something that’s also disappeared from the corporate workplace. People are retreating more into the world of emails where you’re brain has to engage less because you’re not subconsciously processing the body language or nuances of speech of the person as you’re communicating. It’s easier to send an email (that equally you don’t have to think about) through a screen that abstracts you from the rest of the world.
The abstraction also allows you not to think about the impact, either good or bad, of your communication. For example I used to have a boss that would forward emails, adding ‘do this’ at the top all whilst sitting opposite me. The manager thought they were being efficient, however it merely engendered bad feeling.
I know of so many people who are more interested in planning and plotting in their own little world, than getting out into the real world, phoning people or knocking on doors to actually achieve anything. Ferrying poorly written information might keep people busy but it’s not achieving anything.
There is no substitute for real human contact, where you have to concentrate fully on the communication itself. You have to build relationships in order that a business can thrive or a project get to completion. Emails are too forgettable, promises to real people aren’t.
Comments
jason lynes
word.