To txt or not to txt? Well, it depends on how fast you want your message received. There are many factors that we quickly taken into consideration when communicating through the various channels.
For example, if I wanted to get through to my brother, I would simply send a txt. If it were my other brother, I might IM him instead, because I know he is usually online. Getting through to my grandmother, is another story. A handwritten card is usually acceptable (preferably in German, of course) or a phone call would do just fine. Those are the recepient factors.
What about the message urgency? When a person has a myriad of potential communicative modes/devices at near immediate disposal, there are so many choices as to how the message is delivered: landline, mobile, IM, SMS, MMS, work email, home email or social networking messaging services. Just looking at some of the latest address books available (before many of them went digital), you see how many field we started out with: The following fields have been identified in most “tactile” address books: Name, Address, Phone (Home), Fax, Phone (Work), Mobile, Email1, Email 2, Website.
And that was before IM, Facebook, Dodgeball, Myspace, Friendster, LinkedIn, RSS, blogging, Flickr and Delicious!
These decisions happen so fast, though, that we rarely consider what went into making them. According to isolated encounters and numerous observations, it seems to boil down into a few major factors, which are typical to consider in the delivering of a message: what am I saying and how do I say it. However, with the many options of sending the message, another factor rises to the surface and that is latency.
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