12-04-2004, 05:00 AM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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How Communicative Are You?
Pocket PC Thoughts reader, LarDude, made an interesting comment to this news post I made a few days ago. So here's the question: if you could only pick one form of electronic communication, which would be your preferred one?
Due to the limitations of these polls, it would be great if you could make a brief comment on your current location and profession, and what made you choose the poll option that best fit your preferences. Since the Pocket PC Thoughts community is a diverse one, I'm working on the expectation that the results of this poll will speak for the majority of countries around the world, while also taking age and profession into account. Some of your comments may collude with those in the original thread, but at least now I've got a poll which can tabulate the results! :P
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12-04-2004, 05:09 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,725
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Well, I would chose a phone, or videophone (or better yet, talk to the person  )...but given these electronic choices, I'd go with IM. I know email is important to people, but I use IM much much much more often than email to actually talk to my friends. Yes, I could use email, but as the name implies, it's just not as fast as IM.
In my mind, email is to traditional mail as instant messaging is to phone calls.
I would rather live without my US Mail than without a telephone, so in this case, I'd rather live without email than instant messaging.
Just a teenager's view though. :mrgreen:
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12-04-2004, 05:13 AM
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,998
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I chose email. I rarely IM and hardly ever SMS.
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12-04-2004, 05:34 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 99
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I chose email. We use IM internally at our office because our office is very large and it beats getting up and walking up/down the stairs to ask for something. Sure we could phone, but we're all on the phone all day as it is.
For all other communications with clients, vendors, etc, I prefer email. IM for clients, etc, would be impossible to manage and email is easier to track, archive, and search. Email allows time to find the right answer/response to a client. Some people expect instant repsonses to email as it is. IM would be a nightmare!
I work for a property management company in San Francisco. We manage condominiums and apartment buildings.
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12-04-2004, 05:40 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 131
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This is the weird thing.
I SMS more to europe, about 10 times a day. The love SMS in Europe.
However up here in North America, I e-mail more cause most people here still don't know what SMS is. It seems college kids are getting the hang of it but thats just generation X.
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12-04-2004, 06:01 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 621
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SMS is really big here in the Philippines but I prefer IM, prob is GPRS and rates here are not too reliable and cheap respectively so you can't IM with your mobile, I'm online on my PC though whenever it is on. So I voted for IM but actually SMS more I'd say I average 20-30 a day (weekday) and maybe 40-50 a day (on weekends). I use email for international correspondence or work only.
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12-04-2004, 06:02 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,079
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I'm amazed SMS is in 3rd position now and far behind email.
Is it because most European PPCT visitors are asleep now? Heck it's about 6 AM CET*.
I'd have chosen MMS as it allows for more power such as more characters and multimedia content (images, sound).
I wonder why SMS is so unpopular in the US. Would it be because few phones feature SMS?? Or people ar less SMS savvy?
Even my 72 years old mother uses SMS a lot (well 99% with me as I'm all who's left in her close family).
Anyway I chose SMS (MMS) because everybody has a phone nowadays, a lot more than have a computer. And therefore everybody can get and send SMS, even more so en route.
And because the question was not "what's my preferred electronic communication means" but rather "If I had to pick one form of electronic communication, it would be...", that's why I chose SMS (MMS) since it's the most universal one.
*=CET stands for Central Europe Time; well it's rather Western than Central Europe since EU extends well beyond the former Iron Curtain now.
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12-04-2004, 06:22 AM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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Well, I thought I'd add my comments...
To tell you the truth, I use all three forms copiously. However, I ended up choosing "email".
I use email for a number of reasons. Contacting friends, etc. and it makes as an excellent form of correspondence between the Thoughts team. I use IM for the same reasons, but when I'm looking for a quick reply instead. I tend to use SMS more when I'm out and about, or just can't be bothered getting on the net. However, when it all came down to which one suited my lifestyle more, it ended up being email. I can't always be there to instantly reply to people's messages, and email allows me that time I need when I'm a little busy.
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12-04-2004, 06:29 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,183
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Most of the time I don't have time to use SMS - it takes SOOOO long to type something simple, and it is impossible to write a long message. But SMS can be great on the go, or if I am in a client office and have a minute or two two send my wife a sickly love note. But it does not cut it for me for business communications, which are the majority of communications I make. Plus it is terribly expensive - several tens of pounds or dollars for one Mb!
Messenger is great for keeping in touch with friends and family - I live in the USA now, but only moved here form England 6 months ago. But for business communication it can also take up too much time if things degenerate into chatty conversation. It works well for urgent communication where you and/or the client/wife/mother need to be doing more than one thing at a time ... it can be a lot less intrusive than a phone call in the right circumstance. And it is free!!! - OK we need to pay for internet access, but to all intents an purposes chat is free.
Email is about perfect for me both for business and private communication. It allows me the time to write a considered response. It allows me the time to choose for myself when I will write or reply to someone. It gives me a clear paper trail when dealing with clients. I can easily converse with several people simultaneously - great for teamwork. It *can* be a very rapid form of communication too - I have had many conversations by email that have tagged back and forth in a matter of minutes - not as fast as Messenger etc, but fast enough when dealing with people hundreds or thousands of miles away. And best of all it is free!
Telephone for me is usually used in one of three cases - the client is new and we need to get to know each other better before email or whatever becomes efficient, a last resort when email has failed to achieve the required outcome, or something I use for emergencies when it is simply impractical to use any other form of communication.
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12-04-2004, 07:02 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 211
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I work from home and I'm on my computer all day. I chose email, primarily because it allows me more freedom in managing my time. I never use SMS, but I do use IM occasionally for personal correspondence. I find IM is an interruption, much like a phone call. If I were to handle most of my communications this way, I would be getting interrupted constantly throughout the day. With email, I can set aside a block of time to deal with it and the rest of the day it doesn't have to interrupt what I'm working on.
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