#45: Text to say thank you.

Saying thank you was drilled into our collective cerebrums when we were children- along with saying please. Mother make it to say thank you came as natural as breathing. The response to ‘thank you’ is ‘you’re welcome’ and we’re done.*

Texting a thank you isn’t as good as a phone call or a face-to-face type, but it is better than none. The words ‘thank you’ suffice, although I like to add a short explanation for what I am thankful. Examples: Thank you for doing that job; thank you for getting back to me; thank you for rolling down the grass hill the other day – that sort of thing.

Besides showing manners and to convey you were not raised wrong, saying thank you is a means to communicate that the conversation has ended. I find texting a bit frustrating as sometimes these conversations come to an end without concrete closure. I am waiting for the other to return the ball and there isn’t any. I wish there was a term or an emoji = this ends the conversation. Thank you and goodbye is good enough so perhaps we don’t need one.**

Saying thank you (text or otherwise) doesn’t directly improve your life but it slightly improves the lives of others – maybe more than slightly. Studies again and again show simple acts of kindness that seem mawkish do a heck of a lot of good. Acknowledging another with a thank you goes a long way.

Thank you for reading this.

*I show my age here. ‘You’re welcome’ is the proper response to thank you for my generation. Younger ones are using ‘no problem’ more and more and it rankles. One could argue communicating that something wasn’t a big deal to do makes more sense than the implied you were welcome to do something in the first place. These are phatic expressions and they change in time. With all that said, whenever I hear ‘no problem’ I want to slap the kid.

**There is a Japanese emoji that may serve. It is red and the character is quite busy looking. It means ‘full’ like a hotel or a parking lot, but also means full as in satiated. Sending it as a summary could mean “thank you but I’m satisfied with this interaction, so I will sign off now” followed by the receiver sending similar. Groovy, no?