K.I.T.

ever wonder about the phrase "keep in touch"? do people really say it when they geniunely want someone to keep in touch with them, or is it some cop-out cliche like saying "hi, how are you?" to a complete stranger when you really don't want to know? well, i did some reasearch on the matter... gotta love the internet!

--

Keep In Touch
by H ARBANI R ANA
May 17, 2004

How many times have we seen the phrase “Keep in Touch” written in an email, letter, or even a greeting card? I can recall quite a few people who wrote this at some point or another, but I haven’t seen or heard from them in years. I wonder why they write it at all if they don’t mean it.

One of the reasons could be that they do not know how to end their message. They have written all they have to write and just need a cliché phrase to help wrap up what they have to say. There are so many other things one can write, like “goodbye” or “I’ve got to go” or even “until next time,” whenever that is.

Another reason they would use the phrase is because they genuinely mean to stay in touch, they just don’t know how to or maybe lack the motivation to continue to write. Most people don’t go out of their way to stay out of contact, unless they have a specific reason to remain isolated. There’s nothing wrong with that, but then those are also usually not the kind of people who use the special phrase.

Others write the phrase to mislead the person to whom they are writing into believing that they actually plan to maintain contact. This is just an easy way to let down an eager beaver who believes that people want to communicate with him or her. The person expects replies to his or her messages and they get nothing, only because the phrase was carelessly used.
--