No, I am not talking about the 'pesky SMSes' sent by marketing companies. I am referring to the following flow:
1. Compose SMS
2. Choose from Contacts...
3. Select all
4. Type some cloyingly sweet message on the occasion of Diwali, Dussehra, whatever
5. Send!
So impersonal. So artificial. You don't even know who you've sent the message to! Whether that person is dead or alive. Whether you're still friends with him. Whether he celebrates the festival or not.
I find these messages very irritating. I get them from people I might have interacted once in my life and I forgot of their existence only to receive this SMS from them on a festival. Mind you, they've forgotten of my existence too. And what's worse, while I am reminded of their existence by the SMS they've callously sent, they are still clueless of my existence! Not fair!
That is why, getting the personalized message from Aditya is so heart warming! "Dear Kamal", it begins, "Wishing you and your family a very Happy Diwali! -Aditya." Very effective. You know the person has spent a few moments remembering you and has at the very least typed your name. The copy-paste feature of phones these days enables you to avoid typing the whole message again and again. But you're sure that at least your name was typed! So much better!
1. Compose SMS
2. Choose from Contacts...
3. Select all
4. Type some cloyingly sweet message on the occasion of Diwali, Dussehra, whatever
5. Send!
So impersonal. So artificial. You don't even know who you've sent the message to! Whether that person is dead or alive. Whether you're still friends with him. Whether he celebrates the festival or not.
I find these messages very irritating. I get them from people I might have interacted once in my life and I forgot of their existence only to receive this SMS from them on a festival. Mind you, they've forgotten of my existence too. And what's worse, while I am reminded of their existence by the SMS they've callously sent, they are still clueless of my existence! Not fair!
That is why, getting the personalized message from Aditya is so heart warming! "Dear Kamal", it begins, "Wishing you and your family a very Happy Diwali! -Aditya." Very effective. You know the person has spent a few moments remembering you and has at the very least typed your name. The copy-paste feature of phones these days enables you to avoid typing the whole message again and again. But you're sure that at least your name was typed! So much better!
Comments
Matter of time before phones get a "personalisation" feature where people can type in:
Dear {First Name}
Happy Diwali
Thinking of you today.
Love
Aditya
and you get a Dear Kamal email even though it is a bulk, impersonal post! Perhaps the phones already have such a feature!