Text Message Rant

Lots of text messages are sent out to several people as a group. Seems to me that these messages mostly fall into two categories:

1. A question is asked of the group such as “Are you free on xxx to go out for dinner?” Or “Did you get the message I sent with attachments?” Or something similar where an answer is solicited. For these, please respond only to the sender of the group email and not to everyone.
2. Some group messages are meant to be shared. “Loved all of us being together tonight. Thanks.” “Need to know who is willing to bring what foods to Joe’s house next week. Here’s a list of what’s needed” In these, it’s implied that responses should be shared among the recipients rather than just to the sender.

Some of the above also applies to group emails. The basic idea is, then, to think about the message (or email) itself and whether it’s appropriate to respond to everyone or just the sender. Always sending to everyone means our mobile phone keeps beeping and beeping as everyone does the same thing.

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