Penned Thoughts

A few weeks ago, I received the following message on my iPhone from someone who’d recently purchased an iPad:

Your favourite iPad paid Apps

When I did not reply to the message, I received a more descriptive message on the following day:

Suggest me some good iPad apps to go for (games etc) and I am looking for paid Apps

I did not reply to that message either and just looked the other way. Today, the following tweet (from a different person) showed up in my Twitter timeline:

Guys, recommend me an entry level, lightweight vacuum cleaner with good suction power.

Oh, really? May we also massage your feet and clean your house for you while we are at it? Please?

You recognise what’s missing from the demands above, don’t you? A simple word: please. And a polite, requesting tone. The Internet makes it very easy to reach out to perfect strangers and forge acquaintances and friendships with them, but that does not give you the liberty to take them lightly. It is important to respect others’ time and to solicit help in a way that makes them want to come to your aid.

Now consider the following statement: “Hey, could you please recommend a few iPad apps if you have some free time? I’m mostly looking for paid ones. Thanks.” Even if I had no paid applications to recommend at that time, I would definitely have sent him an answer to let him know that and assured him that I would get back to him later if I came up with any recommendations.

But the way the message was phrased, it was all I could do to not send the reply, “No, I’d rather not, thank you very much.” That would be very impolite and, well, I do like to eat my own dog food to the extent that I can.

-Aayush