The Facebook Messenger team recently took a survey of over 3,500 digital communicators coming from across the U.S., the UK and Australia. The objective in mind was to establish the ultimate messaging do’s and don’ts when it comes to communicating digitally with courtesy.
After completing the survey, the FB Messenger team collaborated with Debrett’s, an organization recognized as “the authority” on modern etiquette, to develop a first-of-its-kind formal messaging guide captioned as “The Art of Digital Messaging – A Guide to Communication in the Digital Age.”
Survey Results Considered in Formulating the Digital Messaging Guidelines
The results of the survey provided the groundwork on which to formulate the first formal guides on etiquette for digital messaging. That way, navigation of messages, even if sent by way of brief texts and quick chats, will still reflect courtesy and mindful thoughts.
Based on the results of the survey, the FB team found out that people from across the world:
- React differently to messages that come with sarcastic tones. Where 31% of the surveyed Britons say they ignore sarcastic tones by keeping a stiff upper lip, Americans are more likely to react by asking for clarification in order to tackle issues head on.
- Consider a 5-word content as the average length of a message. To which 37% of respondents from across the globe think it is bad etiquette to over-reply; such as sending 10 or more replies to every single thread of conversation.
- Forwarding a text message or sharing a friend’s photo to someone else is deemed as a classic example of a bad etiquette.
- Prefer to be in a chat group composed of less than 6 people.
- Generally find it frustrating when no one replies or reacts to a question or a shared info; or when someone introduces a private info to the group
- Claim they have been ghosted, while some dmitted that they themselves have ghosted,
- Make it a point to sign off on every conversation, a practice common nearly half of global respondents whose ages range between 45 and 64. On the other hand, only a third of the millenials between ages 18 and 24 consider it necessary to sign off from a conversation.
Brief Summary of Etiquette Guides Formulated by FB and Debrette’s
- Hone message tones by not using words that evoke sarcasm and/or irony.
- Keep a message brief but concise; avoid going into lengthy compositions as they tend to overwhelm.
- Do not send multiple messages to a single conversation thread of a group chat.
- Ask permission first when sharing a photo or information sent by a friend, giving careful thought that a friend shared it with confidentiality in mind.
- Prior to joining a group chat, make it a point to know the other GC members in order to avoid sending or sharing indiscrete or offensive messages.
- Do not allow a group chat message to hang without a response, in case a question, an important event or a concern was raised or mentioned.
- Bugging friends or people you do not know very well, for quick replies is bad etiquette. Wait for at least a day before following up on a response to your message.
- Rather than ghost someone, give him or her a call or meet up personally to offer an explanation on why you are cutting off communication ties.
- If a flood of photos or updates are starting to annoy you, make a courteous and graceful exit in order to be excluded as recipient.
- Practice good etiquette by signing off on every conversation.