Grown adults who know better have fallen into the lazy habits of Generation Z.
People who lived in the sane world that existed a few years ago are acting as though they, too, have forgotten how human communication works.
But they haven’t. They’ve gotten lazy. That happens to all of us, and I am included. But not wholly included.
I make the effort to be clear and understandable. The same effort that was normal and expected of every grown adult before texting became ubiquitous.
I expect and insist on the same from anyone who wants to communicate with me. It’s irksome how many people don’t reciprocate that baseline level of respect. They force a person (from whom they want help or conversation) to actively beg and wheedle and pull information from the requestor that the requestor should already have made clear.
This is unacceptable. I will answer no communications like these:
1. “The site/link doesn’t work!”
-Be specific, type out the site, and tell me what “it doesn’t work” means. Don’t do that and I ignore your request.
2. “What do you think of this?” followed by a screenshot of a text conversation. No names. No labels. No context. Often no way to visually discern which of the messages in the screenshot is from party A, or from party B.
-If I have to prompt a person to do what they should have done without asking, I’m likely to ignore what they want. I will not do their work for them. Just like I wouldn’t ask them to do my work for me.
This goes for almost any modern communication. The fact of cell phone and digital technology does not change the mentation requirements that evolved human brains operate on.
Humans did not become ChatGPT just because cell phones were invented. Our minds didn’t evolve new epistemic and deductive software just because everyone lives on their iphones.
Everyone reading this knows this is true. Everyone reading this feels the same way I feel when they’re dunned with some vague request that is sent to them as if they were an algorithm, not a person.
This is so basic I shouldn’t have to write this. It’s not extreme, or excessive, or unreasonable.
The general refusal to consider the needs of the other person in communication is what’s lazy, rude, and irritating.
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Thanks, Josh. If it's all right with you I would like to copy your rules for communication, amend the specifics to fit my circumstances, and share them with my co-workers who routinely fail to communicate properly, costing me time and using energy needed to control my frustration. Rudeness and inconsideration is the norm in virtual communication, and those of us tolerating and complying with it need to stop.
Oh. This is my personal pet peeve. I hate lack of communication, but even more so I hate lazy communications. Don’t assume I have the time and desire to research what you mean or do all the work in putting your question into context. In my work life it has gotten so bad, that some people write the subject line in an email as “Question” and then ask something so generic that I cannot answer without putting in a lot of effort... thanks for sharing your perspective. I an glad I am not the only one frustrated by this.