BY NICHOLAS ENGERT

Dear Reader,

(You see – that wasn’t difficult.)

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I know, I know, I know. What I am about to say is so petty and trivial in a world of such serious issues but…

When did the salutation of “Dear …” morph into Hi, or worse, Hi Ya?

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I suspect it became deeply embedded with the texting generation – another of life’s slow degradations which in turn morphs into an endless stream of emojis. How I detest emojis! People do not talk to one another these days. They send endless text messages with gormless emojis instead.

The sloppy salutation of Hi is at its most irritating when proffered in an unsolicited email or phone call from someone you do not know and, in the vast majority of cases, do not wish to know.

And the worst of it is that, like flu, the use of this awful, vulgar greeting spreads and, completely involuntarily, I find myself using the greeting before I have a chance to stop and say something more useful. And that really irritates!

The growth of Hi as a salutation is a reflection of less formal times which have been accelerated by electronic communications. Today nobody addresses another with the title of Mr or Mrs – we get straight down to first name terms. Mr or Mrs is a form of protection – a defence layer that should only be dropped once a level of mutual understanding has been reached between parties. To penetrate this layer on first meeting a stranger creates an unwarranted and, possibly, unwanted informality. Add Hi into the mix and we are down there with the kids!

Correcting this sloppy behaviour is really not that difficult.

• Start with hello, good morning, good afternoon etc when in conversation,
• Start with Dear … in letters and in emails,
• When you do not know the other party start with Mr or Mrs, particularly if you are trying to create a business relationship.

Three simple rules.

How hard can it be?

Now where is that smiley face emoji….

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Nicholas Engert has been involved in interior design and lighting since 1985. He works on mainly residential projects, gardens and hospitality both in the UK and abroad. His writing can be found on Substack, entitled An Aesthetic View of the World.