Yes, and I believe it’s largely due to smart phones.
Written communication isn’t for everyone. Some people do better speaking in person or on the phone. Given some of the poor communication that takes place, I wonder if some would be better off using Morse Code, signal flags, passenger pigeons, smoke signals, the Pony Express, or other modalities.
And let’s not even dwell on the general lack of writing skills stemming from the fact that many people never crack a book.
Unlike some, I am not annoyed by spelling mistakes in emails. For me, as long as the meaning gets across, who cares? In fact, I enjoy spelling mistakes. The best one I’ve seen recently was a restaurant menu whose front cover proudly proclaimed that they offered “Fine Dinning” in nicely printed huge type. Despite a very good grasp of spelling, I do make mistakes in emails when moving quickly. To me, this is not a big concern, because spelling problems are very minor compared to other email communication snafus.
A special annoyance for me is trying to email tech support with more than one question. Those people are paid so little, and must go so fast, that often only one question is answered per email. Having had some experience in tech support myself, I have seen tech support systems wherein the screens they have are poorly designed, so that only a couple lines of the message are readily visible. As soon as they read the first question, they fire off an answer, not realizing that there were four more questions. With this in mind, I tried using bullet points for the questions. This generally made no difference – still one answer (or none) per email. So I would keep emailing until they’d address each question. If there were five questions, there would be at least five emails. Not exactly the efficiency that tech support managers had hoped for.
I think the smartphone problem is related to this. With the teeny tiny screens they have, the user might not even notice that a message might extend beyond the first screen. (Of course, cell phones are even worse) So I end up emailing back 3 more times to get the question answered. Couple that with their tiny keyboards, and it’s no wonder communication is degraded. Many people are also multitasking when answering emails on their phone, not to mention using it in poorly lit environments, so it’s actually amazing that any communication takes place beyond “LOL” or “WTF”.
The smartphone has the ability to make even the articulate person sound illiterate. I have one client who is intelligent, but his emails are case studies in missed information and inefficiency. He also gets bonus points for this cringe-inducing email sig: “Sent from my iPhone, because I’m cool that way” Right. Well, maybe Steve Jobs would think so.
With this in mind, when I have an email of any consequence or length, I will give a one-sentence summary right up at the top, just like I’ve done with this post. That way, if someone is reading on their iPhone or Crackberry, they have at least a chance at getting the meaning. If they want to find out more, or get details, they might read further. The old-school method of exposition, where your conclusion comes at the end after several supporting arguments, no longer works in the world of email.
It reminds me of that old school essay trick where near the end of a long paper, the student would write “if you’ve read this far, please place a checkmark here”.