Article by Deb Kloeppel, founder and CEO, CASY-MSCCN
I received an e-mail newsletter the other day in which I was addressed as “Dear Name Inserted Here.” Needless to say, I didn’t feel exactly valued by the sender.
My team and I send out a monthly online publication to our key supporters, so I get it: I can certainly relate to honest mistakes regarding grammar, syntax, salutations, greetings and techie glitches. But whatever the reason for the online mishap, it’s just not a nice experience to be addressed as “Name Inserted Here.”
It amazes me how much business is done virtually in both the corporate and private sector-and all over a keyboard! Since the late 1990s, an historic revolution took place in typing pools globally. Secretaries became administrative assistants and typists became computer specialists. The skill levels of frontline support personnel upgraded dramatically, as did their compensation. Hence the computer age took over every aspect of lives.
You see it in every day: Typing has replaced our physical voices. We are now Internet-driven and gadget crazy. Think about it for a moment: Every single gadget that connects us to the Internet has ONE thing in common-words. Millions of words typed from teens, tweens, young professionals, young parents, young kids and the AARP generation.
Everyone is typing words on gadgets that connect us to the Internet and to one another. We no longer have sound coming from our voices. We have sound-bites coming from our words.