Dear Eric: A childhood friend and I communicate every few months via e-mail – short messages of a few lines. We live across the country from each other. He’s not a tech so we can’t use FaceTime, etc.

In his emails he wants my thoughts on issues then after I spend a lot of time answering and giving my thoughts, I hear nothing back. Acids.

After not hearing back, I asked if he got my email. His response? Nothing.

Recently we were in Europe for five weeks and he emailed and wanted to know all about what we saw, the food and the people. I won’t respond to the latest inquiry because I’m sure I won’t hear back.

He is a college graduate, was a school administrator and seems to be social. I have decided not to send any details about our recent trip or other inquiries that require more than a few, very short lines. Frankly, I’m completely sick of putting significant time and effort into an email only to hear nothing in response. Why do people do this?

– no more

Dear no more: Time to pick up the phone. Even if he doesn’t FaceTime, if he has a computer, it stands to reason that he also has a device that will receive phone calls.

If you enjoy communicating with him but hate his poor e-mail etiquette, a quick catch-up phone call takes the battle away. It also creates a great opportunity for you to ask, “If you’re so interested in my thoughts, why don’t you ever write back?”

Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at [email protected] or PO Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him at Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.

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