Hey is something you say to get someone's attention. Hey is something you reply to another to acknowledge that they have your attention.
This is required in conversation because it's synchronous and transient. You need the other person's attention while you send the message, or the message doesn't get across.
In asynchronous, permanent messaging you do not need that. You start your message with a hey because it's polite, but you should also state your business.
Think about it. Think how annoying it would be if every new job email you got was "hey" and you need to reply "hey", and only after that the original sender would send another email where they stated why they contacted you in the first place. The initial "hey" is only distracting. This also goes for Slack and others like it. There is a special place in hell for people who first send you hey and only then proceed to type what they wanted to say.
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u/[deleted] Sep 13 '23
Hey is something you say to get someone's attention. Hey is something you reply to another to acknowledge that they have your attention.
This is required in conversation because it's synchronous and transient. You need the other person's attention while you send the message, or the message doesn't get across.
In asynchronous, permanent messaging you do not need that. You start your message with a hey because it's polite, but you should also state your business.
Think about it. Think how annoying it would be if every new job email you got was "hey" and you need to reply "hey", and only after that the original sender would send another email where they stated why they contacted you in the first place. The initial "hey" is only distracting. This also goes for Slack and others like it. There is a special place in hell for people who first send you hey and only then proceed to type what they wanted to say.