My phone buzzed. Then it rang. Then it dinged. Then it chimed again. My son’s school had a two-hour delay due to winter weather, and they wanted to make absolutely sure I knew about it. I received a text message, a voicemail, an email, and a Facebook message – all saying the exact same thing. Add another parent texting me to let me know, and I was at 5 different avenues for receiving the same message.
As I stood there in my kitchen, staring at four identical notifications, I found myself wondering: Is this progress?
Twenty years ago, you might have heard about a school delay from a phone tree (remember those?) or by checking the local TV station’s scrolling list of closings. Sometimes, you’d hear it on the radio the night before. Today, we’ve got technology that can instantly reach thousands of parents through multiple channels simultaneously. That’s impressive. But somewhere along the way, “making sure the message gets through” became “sending the message through every possible avenue.”
Don’t get me wrong – I appreciate our school system going the extra mile to ensure we all got the important message. That’s way better than not receiving the information. I struggled with this when I served as a Youth Minister. How do we effectively get the word out to everyone? The logic behind this approach makes sense. Schools and organizations worry that not everyone checks their email regularly. Some people don’t answer unknown phone numbers. Others rarely look at text messages, or they’ve abandoned Facebook entirely. The solution seems obvious: send it everywhere, and you’re guaranteed to reach everyone.
But here’s what actually happens: Those of us who do check multiple platforms – and let’s face it, most of us do – get hit with the same information over and over. It’s like having four people tap you on the shoulder to tell you the same thing. The first tap gets your attention. The second one is redundant. By the fourth, you’re annoyed.
This isn’t just inconvenient. There’s a real cost to this communication overload. We’re training ourselves to tune out messages because we know we’ll see them again elsewhere. When we start ignoring notifications, we risk missing the one message that actually matters…the update that’s different, the change in plans, the truly urgent information buried in the noise.
The irony is that we have better technology than ever for targeted, efficient communication. Modern systems can track which platform each person prefers and reach them there. They can send follow-up messages only to people who haven’t opened the first one. We have the tools to be smarter about this.
So why aren’t we using them? Often, it comes down to covering all bases and avoiding complaints. No one wants to be the administrator who didn’t do enough to get the word out. But in trying to reach everyone everywhere, we’re creating a new problem: message fatigue.
Perhaps a better approach would be to let people choose their preferred communication channel and then respect that choice. One well-crafted message through the right channel beats four identical messages through every channel.
Technology should make communication more effective, not just more frequent. As we continue to adopt new platforms and tools, maybe it’s time we ask ourselves: Are we using these tools to communicate better, or are we just using more tools to communicate the same way? The next time my phone buzzes with a notification, I hope it’s because there’s actually something I need to know – not because it’s the third reminder of something I learned an hour ago.
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