Um, HELLO?

Part 1:
For 3 days, while using any communication technology, abruptly end your communication without any warning. (don't type "I have to leave" or "ttyl" on IM, don't say "goodbye," on the phone, don't sign your name at the end of e-mails, etc.) Repeat until you get a reaction. Describe the reactions.

Part 2:
Since the experiment called for three days of abrupt communication endings, I started the experiment on Sunday. I was talking to Person A on AIM and without any warning, I just signed off. Person A did not say anything at first. However, 4 minutes later, Person A texted me to ask me if I was coming back online. I told them “no” and I received a response back of, “haha okay.”

The second situation involved Person B and I talking on the phone at around 8pm. The conversation lasted for about 8 minutes and without any previous warning, I just hung up my cell phone. About a minute after the hang up, I receive a call from person B. I rejected the call. Another minute after rejecting the call, I receive a text message from person B reading, “Are you ok?” I wrote back “Yes” and person B responded with, “Good. I was worried something happened.” I did not write back.

The next situation involved an AIM conversation between Person C and I. We were just talking casually and without informing Person C, I signed off of AIM. However, at the same time, I was signed on to Facebook. Within about 3 minutes, Person C Facebook chats me and jokingly calls me a jerk because I signed off of AIM without saying bye. The conversation just continued from there.

My results illustrate that it is not polite to just leave a conversation. It is apparent that conversations should be ended mutually. This is a very strong norm and should be followed many times a day.

Part 3:
It is clear that after performing my experiment, mutually ending a conversation is a norm. This norm is very important because it is rude to not let a person know that you have to go or that you are busy while ending a conversation. With the design of cell phones came texting; and with texting, came text messaging abbreviations. With this mini “text messaging language,” it is faster to say what you need to say. Also, breaking the norm of abruptly ending a conversation via text messages just got a whole lot worse because ending a conversation, although it did not take long before, just takes a couple of seconds. The same goes with AIM because they are both quick methods of conversation that involve text. Because I signed off abruptly on AIM, both Person C and Person A gave me a hard time afterwards. If it weren’t so easy to just say “ttul” or “g2g,” the norm of saying goodbyes on AIM would probably not exist.