Regardless of how bad something is, you can find some good. With the corona virus overwhelming us emotionally, psychologically and financially, maybe it’s worth it to see a bit of the other side.
I’m talking about people answering their phones, text messages and emails. The standard practice is to not answer your phone unless you know the caller by looking at the ID. If you don’t know the person, you let it go to voice mail, then listen, and later, if you care, you might get back to that individual.
That’s been standard phone response protocol for many years. This past week has seen a turnaround. In fact, I’m hard pressed to remember my phone calls not being answered these past 7-10 days. And if they aren’t, the VM is returned promptly (which in and of itself is a minor miracle).
Clearly, people are wanting to connect. We want to talk to others, partly because we are socially isolated, but also partly (I’m confident) because we’re all facing the possibility of getting really sick or perhaps even passing away. So, suddenly that phone call becomes more important.
I’m not sure why it’s taken the virus for us to respond to others this way. Courtesy and respect should be a given, and when you get a call, you should get back to that person in an appropriate timeframe, no ifs, ands or buts.
Like phone messages, getting others to respond to texts or emails is equally problematic. Because we use the excuse of being “busy,” we pretend we don’t have time to write back. Texting is a bit more immediate and more likely to draw a rapid response in normal times. But even it is neglected for days at a time for certain people. When they do finally apologize for taking an extra long dump that lasted three days, you know their excuse is totally tepid.
Emails get ignored all the time. Yeah, there’s a lot of spam emails, so it can take a few minutes to scroll through your feed and 33 seconds or so to write back to someone.
Writing back is not hard. It’s easy. You just have to commit to do it. Be responsible.
With the virus raging, we’ve suddenly become more responsible when it comes to these common communication courtesies. We reply quickly. We ask how the other person is doing. We speak at length.
All these are good things. We’re reconnecting. It shouldn’t take a virus for us to act this way. It should be the way we behave day-in and day-out every day of our lives. But we don’t, instead using the excuse of how busy our lives are.
I never have bought that excuse. You have time to call a friend or spend 21 seconds writing and sending an email or text. Do it now. You’ll feel better and more connected.
That’s something good the pandemic teaches us – reconnecting to our friends and loved ones. Let’s hope this fresh attitude lasts long after the virus and its after-effects fade from our memories.
- Air pollution is down.
- Traffic jams disappearing.
- Fish reappearing in Venice.
- Telecommuting’s benefits become clearer to the doubters.
I’m talking about people answering their phones, text messages and emails. The standard practice is to not answer your phone unless you know the caller by looking at the ID. If you don’t know the person, you let it go to voice mail, then listen, and later, if you care, you might get back to that individual.
That’s been standard phone response protocol for many years. This past week has seen a turnaround. In fact, I’m hard pressed to remember my phone calls not being answered these past 7-10 days. And if they aren’t, the VM is returned promptly (which in and of itself is a minor miracle).
Clearly, people are wanting to connect. We want to talk to others, partly because we are socially isolated, but also partly (I’m confident) because we’re all facing the possibility of getting really sick or perhaps even passing away. So, suddenly that phone call becomes more important.
I’m not sure why it’s taken the virus for us to respond to others this way. Courtesy and respect should be a given, and when you get a call, you should get back to that person in an appropriate timeframe, no ifs, ands or buts.
Like phone messages, getting others to respond to texts or emails is equally problematic. Because we use the excuse of being “busy,” we pretend we don’t have time to write back. Texting is a bit more immediate and more likely to draw a rapid response in normal times. But even it is neglected for days at a time for certain people. When they do finally apologize for taking an extra long dump that lasted three days, you know their excuse is totally tepid.
Emails get ignored all the time. Yeah, there’s a lot of spam emails, so it can take a few minutes to scroll through your feed and 33 seconds or so to write back to someone.
Writing back is not hard. It’s easy. You just have to commit to do it. Be responsible.
With the virus raging, we’ve suddenly become more responsible when it comes to these common communication courtesies. We reply quickly. We ask how the other person is doing. We speak at length.
All these are good things. We’re reconnecting. It shouldn’t take a virus for us to act this way. It should be the way we behave day-in and day-out every day of our lives. But we don’t, instead using the excuse of how busy our lives are.
I never have bought that excuse. You have time to call a friend or spend 21 seconds writing and sending an email or text. Do it now. You’ll feel better and more connected.
That’s something good the pandemic teaches us – reconnecting to our friends and loved ones. Let’s hope this fresh attitude lasts long after the virus and its after-effects fade from our memories.