My day has been filled with people misusing technology tools as common as voicemail and email, and as “cutting edge” as Facebook statuses and Twitter. I’m not an expert or guru or ninja at any of them, but I’d like to think I pay enough attention to see how people are using these tools and even what the designers’ intentions were for the tool. Because of that, I get something out of them and even make them work for me. Not enough people do.

So many people out there think social networks are distractions, that email in your pocket is unnecessary, or that text messaging is going to destroy the English language. The reality is they don’t know how to use the technology or they’re misusing it which is why they find it useless or unimportant. These things are important to me and my generation, so it’s time to catch up or be left looking stupid because you’re too old to figure out Facebook let alone email.

I was awoken this morning by a call from a New Hampshire number I didn’t know. Groggy and a little angry, I didn’t answer since I didn’t know who they were or what they wanted. Sure enough they didn’t leave a voicemail, and I spent my morning walk to class wondering about my morning mystery caller.

I wasn’t curious enough to call back because their initial call obviously wasn’t important enough to leave a message. If you think people will call you back without leaving a message, guess again. I’m not the only one with too much going on and too many other modes of communication to worry about a missed phone call. This was the most minor of misuses today, but it irked me enough to continue looking for examples.

I get to my first class and get on Facebook because I’m in college (read: helluva multitasker). As I’m scrolling through my news feed (I love the new Facebook design by the way), I noticed a number of people pasting links in their status instead of sharing them properly as videos or news articles. Facebook has taken notice of people pasting URLs in their statuses so they’ve begun hyperlinking them, but this makes for more work by me, your friend.

Every day more than one of my friends has their status set to a URL to a YouTube video. YouTube makes it VERY easy to share their videos on Facebook. Facebook actually embeds those videos so you can play them directly in your feed! Why would you take the time to copy the URL from YouTube, login to Facebook, update your status, and then expect your friends to click on the URL, leave Facebook, watch the video, then come back to Facebook to ‘like it’ or comment?

Sharing on Facebook has been streamlined with the new design. More people see the video, discussions begin, and the social network experience becomes more valuable to everyone. This doesn’t just go for videos but sharing news stories and other information on Facebook (remember me griping about forming groups when you can use Facebook’s phonebook?)

Finally in my last class, I was put over the edge and inspired to write this blog post when I received an email from my landlord. (This isn’t the first time they proved their incompetence with technology) Here’s a screenshot so you know I’m not lying:

pavprop

Yes, the email message concludes by saying, “Please DO NOT respond to this email via email.” Should I write them a letter, call the office, send a fax, make an appointment to come in, or  send them a message on Twitter? WHY WOULDN’T THEY WANT ME TO PRESS REPLY!? They contacted me via this medium so why wouldn’t I use the same medium to respond?

This wasn’t an automated message from an unmonitored account. It was from one of the owners of the company. If an automated billing service were notifying us, it’s totally understandable to have an unmonitored account sending out emails, but almost every automated or unmonitored account message includes an email address you CAN respond to. What are you saying about yourself and your company when you write personal late notices to your tenants and then strongly instruct them not to reply? Don’t you care if I have questions about why you think we owe you this money?

To me this screams, “We have no idea what we are doing or how to use simple technologies such as email.” It also continues to reenforce what I’ve thought for months about Pavilion Properties- they don’t care about their tenants, they are incompetent when it comes to bookkeeping, and they are going to need a major overhaul in how they do business in the very near future.

How nice would it be as a tenant to only get an email when I owed money and not when one of my roommates does? How nice would it be if @mahoffma12 knew how to use his Twitter account so I didn’t have to not email him with questions like “Who owes that money?” What if PavProp’s Facebook page could help me find subleasers for the summer? These aren’t hard things to do even for a novice computer user.

Want to get more out of technology?

  • If you want your call returned, leave a voicemail
  • Sharing information is great! Do it correctly and you’ll share more than a silly YouTube video
  • If you contact me through a medium like email, expect me to respond with the same medium. That’s what the reply button does.

Start using these simple tools correctly and you’ll see what all the fuss is about. Twitter isn’t on the news every night because it’s solely mundane details of people’s day to day lives. Facebook doesn’t have 175 million users because college kids love it. Email didn’t become a word in the dictionary because it’s inefficient. Voicemail didn’t earn Scott Jones a billion dollars as a novelty item.

These are new ways to communicate that make it easier for people to connect and share. I’d even go so far as to say it’s improving the quality of (my) life so get on board and stop embarrassing yourself!