People who don’t reply until days later, why?

 

From AskReddit : People who don’t reply until days later, why?

I get asked this all the time, so here's my answer in written form for those who like that sort of thing!

Communication in writing is very low bandwidth and notoriously difficult to get right. A conversation by text message or email will take hours to do what you could do in live conversation in minutes, and is also more liable to go wrong.

If it's urgent and you want a reply right now call me or even come and find me.

If you send me something in writing and it seems urgent or important or interesting I'll call you back.

If you've just sent me something in writing that seems neither urgent nor important nor interesting then it just goes on the big stack of chores to get round to.

I've got a big stack of e-mails and texts that need replies. They make me feel guilty. Someone adding another one to the stack usually pisses me off.

I greet the arrival of uninteresting text messages and e-mails with the same joy I greet the arrival of communications from the government.

If people who prefer to communicate in writing decide I'm not their friend and go bother someone else I'm usually happy about that.