It seems that people are less likely to respond to text messages these days for exchanging New Year wishes. We conducted a survey/poll to see if it was the case. For our sample survey (case study), we sent 100 Happy New Year text messages but only 53 of them managed to draw a reply. Admittedly, we can’t conclude that text message is irrelevant, but our survey did shed light on a noticeable change in behavior when it comes to sending reply messages.
Nepal has stepped into the New Year 2080 BS and customarily many have been busy sharing best wishes among their family and friends. This traditional practice of exchanging wishes has been encouraged by operators launching packs bringing people voice, data, and SMS. And in a country where over 72 percent use a mobile phone, it does really call for a question on the tendency of sending back a reply to a New Year wish.
However, there seems to be a shift in the behavior of sharing messages. With the advent of social media platforms, the number of online service adoptions has only grown. Nowadays, people are using instant messaging apps, and social media platforms to send wishes.
Also read: SMS or Instant Messaging apps, Which One Do You Prefer?
We ran a poll on our Facebook page
To dig deeper, we ran a poll on our Facebook page where we asked our readers to pick out one of the 3 possibilities as to why people seem hesitant to respond to happy new year text messages (53% is quite low). Same Poll has been posted on our Twitter, Viber and Linkedin, with which 70 percent of our readers suggested the third option. While, 20 percent chose option 2, and 10 percent agreed with option 1.
To make things clear, the first option read, “Messages are not delivered properly.” The second option was “People are very busy” and the winner, the third option read, “People do not spend on messages.” Most believed that mobile phone users don’t want to spend money sending messages over cellular networks.
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1. Messages are not delivered properly
The first option that messages might not have been delivered properly resonated with only a few participants in the poll. While it’s possible that some of the messages we sent didn’t reach the destination at all or didn’t reach on time, the majority did. Network outages, high traffic, and power failures could play a part in disrupting text messaging communication however, it wasn’t the case in our instance. Rather, the recipients rather seemed uninterested in sharing the new year wishes with a reply text.
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2. People are very busy
With most people sparring over the two options, let’s delve deeper between them. Let’s begin with the question, “Are people really busy and lazy” to send or reply to messages? The better answer would lie among mobile phone users themselves. Among most mobile phone users, most are presumably either college goers or office employees. The former can manage time to send messages, while the latter might hesitate or simply “ignore” to reply instantly. But can we declare people lazy and busy? Less likely. Maybe the answer lies in the next option.
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3. People do not spend on text messages
Most people also agreed that people don’t want to spend money on sending messages. While it won’t apply to those for senders (we were to do it for a case study), the reluctant receivers must have considered not opting to spend their mobile balance on exchanging a happy new year message.
IMs, and social media apps have made it easy for people to reach out to multiple people at once. Likewise, adding images, sound, and videos to the text and sending them over the internet is a more attractive option. So, for people with a smartphone and internet access, online means are the immediate solution. Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp Telegram, Emo, Twitter, TikTok, etc. makes it awfully easy for people to share a message with a number of people on the internet without a penny spent from mobile balance. So, it doesn’t require a second thought as to why people won’t want to use a traditional text message for sharing a happy new year wish.
Also read: Will Instant Messaging Push SMS To Death? Let’s Analyze
What’s the likely reason?
The latest telcos’ financial reports also acknowledge the growing less use of traditional voice and SMS services, being one of the reasons for the revenue struggles. So, it’s more likely that people’s shift to online services has made them more likely to use apps to send new year messages than spend money on text messages. But we won’t rule out people’s busy life as another reason for unrequited messages indicated in the survey.
Do you agree with the reason above on why people are unlikely to respond to happy new year text messages, or did you initiate or sent a reply to one of such messages this new year day? Do share in the comments below.
