Means of communication, does it really matter?
Every time I receive a message, whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook, email, SMS or other services, I receive a notification on my iPhone. All notifications are the same; they pop up with the message and two buttons, one lets me ignore the message and the other lets me answer it.
If I decide to answer the message, I tap on the appropriate button and the appropriate application that will let send a proper reply will open. After having gone through this process a few times, I began to wonder if the means of communication really matters since I still receive messages and I reply to them with so much ease no matter where they come from, whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, email, SMS or even instant messaging.
The answer I can come up with is that means of communication only matters if the message isn’t textual. If you only send text, it doesn’t matter which service you are using as long as your recipient gets it. If you are sending anything else, then you can’t close your eyes and randomly pick one. Only email can support a wide variety of file attachments. Facebook can support video and every other services only support text.
Means of communication matter because the companies behind them are at war with each other, most notably Twitter and Facebook.
What about you? When you receive a message, are you like me and you don’t care where it came from? When you send a message to a recipient who can be reached via a variety of services, how do you select which service to use?
October 16th, 2009 @ 13:10:33
Hmm, never actually put any real thought into it. Not sure if its really necessary. The method of reply truly depends on the message. Even if its just textual, its still a decision to make on a few occasions — can the answer fit within a 140 characters or not. Longer messages I usually switch to IM if I have that person in reach. Abroad, calling them is easier and many times quicker. Then again, that person would naturally talk to me through the fastest method there is.
Answering through the same service you received a message is the best method because that person is most likely still active on that service and is thus predisposed to more rapidly answering to your reply.