Pet peeve #1.
While doing some work online today, I was reminded of one of my (seemingly alot) pet peeves.
I discovered I really hate having to wait for a reply whenever I do textual communications, either over the cell phone’s SMS or MSN/IRC.
And it’s not without reasons. When people message me, I’ll try my best to get to them as soon as possible, and this way, it means I’ll probably wait for their subsequent messages so I can actually reply in time. When the subsequent messages come in slow, it means I have to wait a longer time. If I don’t wait, I’ll most probably never reply at all and that’s so rude I guess.
Yes, if I don’t even reply the first message I most probably won’t be considered rude as I am AFK so the one who messaged me could cry about it and I still can’t do anything about it because I am not there.
And if I replied the first one, and then not the subsequent ones without giving a sign that I’ll be gone, it’s rude and bad chatting ettiquette (except to and with some friends who understand that not replying isn’t exactly a big deal, LOL.)
And most of the times, the real irritating ones are those which require an immediate input or confirmation from the opposite party and then the waiting will seem really long. Things with a friend has gotten so bad that I actually swore never to have a proper conversation with her over the cell phone’s SMS, or online unless it’s entirely neccessary for one. Now, you don’t have to know who, you just have to know how much I hate having slow replies.
And sadly, there’s nothing you can do with regards to having slow replies except to accept the fact that you’ll be having slow replies, or just STFU and not talk at all. That’s the sad part of life that I’ve been struggling with for a while. And for almost all the cases, I’d chosen the latter — why put up with waiting when you can choose not have to in the first place?
Besides, if they had cared to reply in time like I did, I wouldn’t have to resent.
So I guess I should stick to the latter for most slow-replying cases so I can keep resentment from me. I mean, c’mon, the Earth won’t just stop spinning around the Sun if I don’t reply to messages – she will be just fine.
Update : By saying that not replying to a message doesn’t make you a rude person, I meant you’re only considered rude if the opposite party thinks you are. That said, who will think you’re rude if you aren’t on the computer screen at the time to reply him? Just think of how slapping a person for nothing is rude, but slapping a person out of his sense is not and you get the drift.