I was writing an e-mail the other day to a person I’ve never met before.

And I was thinking to myself, how should I address this person? Is he a “Hey” guy or a “Hi” guy?

All my e-mails always start with something like, “Hey Joe,” “Hey Amy,” “Hey Tom.”

But some people are not “Hey” people. Some people are a little more formal, and should be addressed with “Hi Tom,” “Hi Mary,” “Hi Joe”—that type of thing.
So I was thinking that when you send an e-mail, you really need to know the type of person you’re writing to, because a “Hey” may turn off a Hi person, and a “Hi” may turn off a Hey person.

A lot of people also have these signatures at the end of your e-mail. Some people have a “Thanks”, some of you are “Talk Soon,” and some of you write “Bye for now.” Some people write, “Regards.”

But the thing is, we wouldn’t actually refer to each person we write to with a “Talk Soon,” a “Regards,” or a “Hey There.” So many of us are not personal at all in our e-mails. We’ve got a “Hey” for everybody, a “Talk Soon” to everybody, or a “Thanks” to everybody.

Why don’t we kind of just kind of sign off and sign on the way we would in person? You don’t walk up to every single person and go, “Hey,” “Hi,” and end every conversation with a “Talk Soon,” “Regards,” “Thanks.”

We’ve gotten really lazy, and we basically try to take every shortcut with technology. I guess sometimes shortcuts aren’t good. Maybe it’s time to personalize things just a little bit more.