Say it to My Face
10/30/2024My Daughter recently texted her boyfriend. During the conversation, an odd text appeared on the screen. My Daughter copied the text and replied, "What do you mean?" Her baffled boyfriend responded, "I don't know. You sent that to me." After going back and forth a few times, they determined her boyfriend sent the text days ago, but it was recently delivered. This conversation raises many questions about modern communications.
The first question concerns the reliability of communication vehicles like text and email. The average daily email delivery failure rate exceeds twenty percent. People send over 340 billion emails each day. According to the undelivered rate, over 68,000,000,000 (68 billion) emails go undelivered each day. That is 476 billion each week. If my math is correct, over two trillion emails go undelivered each month.
People send approximately 10 billion texts daily, resulting in a fifteen percent delivery failure rate. Approximately 1.5 billion SMS messages are not delivered each day. 10.5 billion texts do not reach their destination each week. Extrapolating these numbers leaves us with over 42 billion texts undelivered each month. Carriers store messages for five to fifteen days before deleting them.
With trillions of communications not reaching their destination each month, is it any wonder there are misunderstandings? Relying on electronic communication vehicles may not be prudent if the message is crucial. Critical communications should be carried out via voice (which has its issues) or face-to-face.
Micro-ex
The Seven Universal Micro-ex
Video conferences fill the void for many messages. Facial ex
Technology offers many advantages. It is possible to contact people across the globe in moments. Corresponding with thousands of people can be executed with the click of a mouse. However, these advancements cannot replace human instinct. So if you have something important to say, please say it to my face.