On the same page

Volker Weber is a journalist. He writes for a German computer magazine (C't) about smartphones, gadgets, camera's etc. and maintains his blog for many, many years now where he describes the stuff he testing or doing day-by-day. He is my age (we differ two months) and I know him for many years.  He is always reviewing the newest smartphones and peripherals while I am a BlackBerry guy. He is on top of any social media, on twitter, Google+ and so on. I do not use social media at all. He is a smart and sensible guy but he is what I am not...until today.

In this post he suggests that people who want to contact him just have to send an email. Do not hangout, become friends or use any contemporary communication channel to blur your thoughts to him. I am on that page too but there is where a potential (?) problem starts: many people who are used to 160 character messages might not be able to sort out their the message in their head and write that down. Also the use of smartphones and tablets do not add to the construction of well thought, longer than 160 character messages. This is no problem if you "hangout" with your friends but when this behavior shifts to your professional live, I think that a problem starts.

Many times I receive emails that are clearly typed on a smartphone or tablet. They often have a message in the footer to "excuse the brevity because of a mobile device". Since it is pretty hard to type in the message, the informational value of these messages are limited. E.g. "Please review this email and give me your opinion". There is an email trail of 2 meter below and you have to distillate what the actual question or message is. I refuse that. I take around 50 milliseconds to review that email and if I don't understand I or disgard the email at all or ask the sender to elaborate on their question or message. That has made my life much easier. If it is not that important the sender does not come back and else they have to reply with a (more) elaborate answer that makes sense.

So, if you want to contact me, send an email. Use a good input/typing device, use the Subject field to exactly tell what this email is about, think of what you want me to know or ask, make some nice sentences and press Send. It will end in my Inbox and I will understand and reply or follow up!