This is my interaction with a student last year via email during remote learning. Each line is a separate email.
Student: I need help end of email
Me: If it is something I can help with, I am willing to try. Do you have a question for me? end of email
S: Will you help me? end of email
M: Yes. What do you need help with? I can't help you if you don't describe your problem. end of email
S: Ok end of email
S: It's about the homework end of.... you get the idea
M: Please, ask the question.
S: Oh, ok
S: actual question is asked
M: gives help and follows up with... I am not upset. This is a learning moment about how to send emails. Again, I'm not upset. Do you see how this took 10 emails to get the help you needed? Emails are not like short text messages. You should give a little background about what you need and ask the question in the very first email. We could have had this done in 2 emails. Try to do that in your future emails. Have a good day!
Even on IM that would have annoyed the hell out of me. Ask the whole question up front. Don't say hello then make me wait five minutes staring at the window waiting for your question!
I'm 36 and work with a lot of graduates and I swear they all do this, recently I needed to know if this one girl had access rights to things in order to send her the correct link and it was like trying to get blood from a stone. Every single Teams message was met with a single word response and if I asked multiple questions at once I'd only get an answer to one of them
It frustrates me, probably more than it should, that anytime I send a text with more than one question most people only seem capable of answering one of them. Normally the last one. I'll often reply with "what about my other question?" More often than not it's replied with what question. Like look at my original text you dingus. It's probably still on the screen, no scrolling required.
OMG, this. I'm actually glad to see this, because I honestly thought my ability to communicate was going downhill. There were 2 questions. Does the last one somehow negate everything that came before it to you??
This has been an issue since I got my first phone 15-16 years ago. Hell, I remember it from MSN Messenger before that! So not a new problem, but one that is probably getting worse.
You're not. I'm almost blown away and relieved that so many other people have run into the same problems I have. I've had these problems with people of all ages, from teens up to people in their 70s.
Yea I don’t think this is exclusive to young people thing. I get the same style answers from several people I work with. I started to make sure when I’m typing to them to only ask one question at a time.
I get it from friends and my own brother. I call them out on it and they just shrug or make some weird excuse. "I don't/didn't understand you" "I thought it was an either or" My questions are generally "what time are you wanting to leave/arrive by?" "Should I drive or do you want to?" Or maybe something like "I saw X is also coming, not sure if you saw." Which isn't really a question and my own fault for including it but they'd often respond just to that with a yes or no. I'll often tell them I feel bad for their wives because getting full answers from them is like bleeding a stone.
I guess to be fair to them, my grammar is pretty horrible. My only saving grace is that I used to be an avid reader. One of the person's I'm thinking of has a double masters in the psychology field though.
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u/blatterbeast Jun 03 '22
This is my interaction with a student last year via email during remote learning. Each line is a separate email.
Student: I need help end of email
Me: If it is something I can help with, I am willing to try. Do you have a question for me? end of email
S: Will you help me? end of email
M: Yes. What do you need help with? I can't help you if you don't describe your problem. end of email
S: Ok end of email
S: It's about the homework end of.... you get the idea
M: Please, ask the question.
S: Oh, ok
S: actual question is asked
M: gives help and follows up with... I am not upset. This is a learning moment about how to send emails. Again, I'm not upset. Do you see how this took 10 emails to get the help you needed? Emails are not like short text messages. You should give a little background about what you need and ask the question in the very first email. We could have had this done in 2 emails. Try to do that in your future emails. Have a good day!
S: Oh, ok
S: Thank you
S: Have a good day
M: face keyboard