It seems like you're being downvoted, but I'm right there with you. I can't tell you how many times I've been in the middle of a thought only to receive a "Hi, can I ask you a question?" message, followed by 30 seconds of "X is typing...".
Part of my job is answering questions. The answer to "can I ask you a question?" therefore is always "Yes". All you manage to accomplish by asking me if you can ask me a question is to break my concentration and waste my time until your actual question comes through (often one line at a time as well).
I have to assume this is coming from people who are not good text communicators in general because the same problem exists with email: "when would you like to schedule this" without indication of your own schedule is one such pet peeve. It's really easy to stretch out asynchronous conversation by wasting the other person's time.
"I have a question" in speech DOES have a purpose, which is to prime listeners to enter conversation mode instead of stopping you to say "what" after you've said two words. Of course, I've seen people who are on the ball and impatient still get testy about that convention.
Edit: the most infuriating experience I've had in recent memory is a friend who will consistently spam his shitposts over IM without warning, but when it comes time to do business will say "hi" or "are you there" instead of asking the question.
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It seems like you're being downvoted, but I'm right there with you. I can't tell you how many times I've been in the middle of a thought only to receive a "Hi, can I ask you a question?" message, followed by 30 seconds of "X is typing...".
Part of my job is answering questions. The answer to "can I ask you a question?" therefore is always "Yes". All you manage to accomplish by asking me if you can ask me a question is to break my concentration and waste my time until your actual question comes through (often one line at a time as well).
I have to assume this is coming from people who are not good text communicators in general because the same problem exists with email: "when would you like to schedule this" without indication of your own schedule is one such pet peeve. It's really easy to stretch out asynchronous conversation by wasting the other person's time.
"I have a question" in speech DOES have a purpose, which is to prime listeners to enter conversation mode instead of stopping you to say "what" after you've said two words. Of course, I've seen people who are on the ball and impatient still get testy about that convention.
Edit: the most infuriating experience I've had in recent memory is a friend who will consistently spam his shitposts over IM without warning, but when it comes time to do business will say "hi" or "are you there" instead of asking the question.
Oh god yes. This wastes so much time! "Oh Hi" ... 5 minutes later ... "got a sec?"