It’s about time I started actually writing about stuff again rather than just lifeblog posting, which is of course now broken, looks like lots of writing ahead.

Good old (haha) Whatleydude has been at the posting again, this time, on the SpinVox blog running through his Hierarchy of Communication. Basically the order in which communication is responded to, absorbed, read. In this day and age this isn’t as straight forward as before. I guess at a time, this was simply Phone Call or Snail Mail, now, there are many different mediums which can be used. Whatleydude covers Phone Calls, SMSs, Emails, messages from social media aka Twitter / Jaiku, and Voicemail. The main argument is the addition of SpinVox (a service which SMSs you voicemail messages you receive) which fundamentally changes the hierarchy. I think some what unsurprisingly SpinVox is a huge part of Whatley’s day, and any communication through this medium will be of importance, not using the service I am unable to really comment.

Therefore, I will answer the call for personal opinions on communication hierarchies and see where I get. To me, this seems like a situational question, for instance, I have totally different needs at different times. In the office I am more likely to quickly respond to an Email, other anything else. I have outlined 5 different situations: at home; out socially; out with work; in the office; driving. Through the wonders of computers I was able to make a spreadsheet, on which I ranked the 5 mediums over the 5 situations on a scale of 1-5. Yes I’m a genius. Surprisingly to me, whereas Whatleydude had Phone Calls on top, personally, SMSs is actually more important. Whilst at home I am equally happy to receive Phone Calls as I am SMSs, however, whilst driving I can only realistically accept SMSs. As I mentioned, whilst in the office Email is the best way to get me, however much I would prefer to speak to people on the phone whilst at work, this is not always practical. Therefore it is easier to Email / SMS to arrange a call, for this reason both are above calling.

So, the table, remembering that a low number is best here:

SMS – 8
Phone Calls – 9
Voicemail – 19
Social – 19
Email – 19

Very interesting how far behind the other three mediums are, worth noting that SMS and Phone calls are both mobile based, and at the moment Social and Email aren’t. No excuse for Voicemail though, maybe this is because I hate the stupid woman’s message who I have to listen to every time I call my Voicemail.

Also, you can check out Zacharye’s thoughts on the same subject here, to see Whatleydude’s click a link above somewhere.

Thoughts?