Get your message across in right way
WE’VE all been there. The banter on the group chat is sparkling and someone ruins the flow.
There’s the spammer who lights the chat up with endless posts, the downer who kills the gag, or the lurker who leaves everyone on read.
But according to a new guide by etiquette experts Debrett’s in partnership with Facebook Messenger, there are some cardinal sins for online or text communication.
While it may be a bit suss to count on a stuffy house of manners to determine what will fly on one of the most informal communication platforms there is, it’s still worth taking a look at the top dos and don’ts for modern-day texters.
SARCASM ISN’T A PERSONALITY
While there’s no harm in a little irony now and then, no one will be happy with you if they can never tell when you’re actually being serious.
Debrett’s recommends keeping things neutral and upbeat, especially with people you don’t know as well.
If you’re going to rely on irony, at least clarify things with the eye-roll emoji or the ~increasingly popular and extremely trending~ tilde brackets to indicate sarcasm. DON’T BLAB ON
Second on the list of 10 recommendations is to keep things short. A few sentences should be enough to get your message across — especially when talking to someone you’re not exceptionally tight with. On the other hand, don’t err too far on the side of brevity.
Responding with a single emoji or the dreaded oneword response makes you look like you’re not interested. Messages should instead be stretched to at least a short sentence — but it doesn’t need to be a tome.
The average length of a Messenger text is just five words.
DON’T SPAM
This average is skewed lower by people sending shorter messages back to back, rather than one self-contained message, but this bite-sized approach comes with its own set of problems.
“There is definitely a lot of variance in what people deem an appropriate message length,” Debrett’s etiquette expert Katherine Lewis said.
“Some people like to arrange their thoughts in one concise message, while others may text in a stream of consciousness as they think what they want to say.”
The important thing is to give others the chance to speak.
The digital etiquette tips come from a survey of more than 3600 people aged between 18 and 64 in Australia, the UK and US, as well as internal data from Facebook and its Messenger app. of