How many messages do you send?

[GeekDadZoid]

That's going some, six or so an hour, or one every 10 minutes.

How do you find the time?

Alot of it is work stuff, so I am getting paid to do it. Much more efficient than emails / phone calls for many things.

It's certainly increased since we have been remote / hybrid working as it's replaced those casual quick chats about work.

 

[purpan]

Just an observation. I’ve just finished a class with 43 law students, all of whom were quite open about how their psychological need to check notifications is badly affecting their ability to concentrate. As law students are normally used to concentrated study, it’s saying something about the effect of all these messages. I asked for a show of hands on whether they thought social media was positive or negative and all but three thought it had impacted them negatively.

 

[Drago]

If these students know it's a problem, why do they let it persist? I'm an old git and I've figured it out and have the gumption to not fall into that trap, so they have no excuse.

Well, actually they do have an excuse, that being that they don't care and will happily and knowingly sacrifice a bit of concentration for the gratification and fulfilment that immediately reading pointless messages brings.

 

[purpan]

Yeah, that’s true, but even though we old gits know better, we’re still on this forum effectively doing the same thing, aren’t we? The easy option is very seductive.

 

[matticus]

If these students know it's a problem, why do they let it persist? I'm an old git and I've figured it out and have the gumption to not fall into that trap, so they have no excuse.

Well, actually they do have an excuse, that being that they don't care and will happily and knowingly sacrifice a bit of concentration for the gratification and fulfilment that immediately reading pointless messages brings.

See also:
- smokers, drinkers, gamblers ...

Just knowing there is a problem isn't a magic wand that makes it go away.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I had someone upset when they rang me and I cancelled the call without answering. They didn’t seem to understand that ringing someone doesn’t mean they will automatically interrupt what they are doing to answer the phone.

What is quite nice about messaging is that for non urgent stuff you can pick it up at a time convenient to you. A phone call requires both parties to be free at same time. You can expect calls to be ignored unless you have a particular relationship with that person which means they’ll interrupt what they are doing to answer.

As to number of messages. It’s choosing the right medium for the task. Plus not responding to every email or message that turns up. For instance if you are copied in to an email and not directly referenced in the content. You can treat it as for your information. You don’t need to do anything with it or respond. The only thing that responding to emails does, it generate more!

 

[Bromptonaut]

Family Whats App maybe 5-10 a day, more recently due daughter's pregnancy and arrival of the grandsprog.

Also Whats App with a work colleague as we keep in touch outside the office; mutual support. MAybe 2-3 times a week, more when they were off sick last week.

Work has a Google chat system. The whole team in a room, mostly used for chatty how goes its but sometimes to bounce an situation round the 'hive mind'. We can also chat 1:1 confidentially albeit under no illusion that if they had good cause management could access these things. A lot of it is chit chat with colleague referenced above, we've both found it helped deal with the loneliness of working from home. Sometimes work stuff sometimes 'venting' about our respective home life.

No danger for the two of us but you can see how that could get flirtatious and lead people into trouble.

I've seen enough colleagues go 'over the side' in the 40+ years I've worked to know that no good comes of it.

 

[Salad Dodger]

1 WhatsApp message per week to our walking group, confirming details of next meet up.

About 6 per week to my ukulele chums, mostly jokes or replies to jokes sent by others.

1 or 2 messages per week about the band for which I play bass. Usually about rehearsal arrangements.

That's about all I regularly manage. Which means I must be putting about as many posts on cyclechat per week as I send in all other forms of message combined!

 

[presta]

Phone texts: none yet
On here: 603 in 10 years and 2 days
Twitter: 23500 in 45 months

 

[Drago]

Yeah, that’s true, but even though we old gits know better, we’re still on this forum effectively doing the same thing, aren’t we?

No, not really.

Its nothing like Twatter or WotsApp on here, and The Phantom Zone is more like the bickering one sees on Felchberk (or would see if one was a customer, which I am not).

 

[purpan]

No, not really.

Its nothing like Twatter or WotsApp on here, and The Phantom Zone is more like the bickering one sees on Felchberk (or would see if one was a customer, which I am not).

Ironically, this post would be quite at home on a wide range of social media. 😉

 

[JoeyB]

Couldn't put a number on it if counting groupchat messages in WhatsApp / iMessage / Messenger etc.

 

[Jody]

I thought of this thread whilst talking/typing to my mum last night.

She lost all her earing suddenly last week and is currently totally deaf. The only way I could communicate was to type a text message question for her to respond to, but given the speed that you can type a text message, it made almost no difference to the conversational flow.

If this was a text exchange with someone and they were on the ball, you could easily send a message or two every minute.