Sms Etiquette: How polite are you? July 21, 2009

In the past couple of weeks I have found myself (rather amusingly) growing indignant at the way in which people send what seem to me rather impolite sms’s. The problem is not that the sms’s are impolite but rather that the people who send them are not impolite people. In their day to day dealings they are pleasant, considerate and caring people yet (it seems to me) that the pleasantness or politeness doesn’t translate into their sms etiquette! Is to too much to ask for a greeting at the begining of the text (heya) , an equiry into ones  well being (you well?), a little encouragement (hope the day is/was good) and any appropriate ending (peace…cheers…thanks)? Am i just been a friendliness glutton, wanting more from a simple text message than what it can give.

Whatever the case is, there is one detail that I haven’t mentioned so far which could shed some much needed light on the dark, sordid world of poor sms etiquette. As many of you know I live mainly with American’s and many of the said messages in question have been received from ‘them’  This beg’s the question, ‘are American’s texto-rudae, or worse so cheap that they want to make sure the text is trimmed of all relational excess to ensure the demanding 144 character quota is met? My heart and experience of my friends tells me that neither of these things are true. What alternative explanations are there? A few things began to emerge on my fact finding mission.

1. South Africa has an sms culture: According to my rigorous research, which included a few casual conversations and a concentrated time of refelction,we send texts far more frequently than American’s. I even encountered American’s who themselves or someone they knew had deactivated their ability to receive texts. Can you imagine a South African who is unable to receive texts? Woe to you, blasphemer! Part of American’s aversion to texts is because their service providers charge them to receive sms’s. My friends told me they were much more likely to make a phone call than to send a text.
2. Text’s are a functional form of communication: It would seem that this is the assumption of some of the people who sent me those ‘trimmed’ messages. A text is simply functional: to get information, make a request or confirm an arrangement. If it achieves that end the text is ‘successful’ and any other communication in the text is unnessecary. This is of course very different from my own usage of texts. For example about 70% of my communication with my girlfriend in JHB throughout the week is through text’s. Text’s in my world (South Africa in general?) go beyond a functional form of communication. 

Within my two above-mentioned discoveries there are some hints as to why I would perceive an sms as being impolite while my friends would see it as completely normal.

I feel much better after taking the time to share these thoughts with you and let you into the complex world of sms etiquette.All thats left to ask is what do you think? Should an sms include things like a greating and an ending or is it only a functional form of communication? Is my indignation culturally conditioned or down right misguided? Is there something I haven’t seen?