When a mass message is impersonal and indifferent it makes it hard for you to feel like you really matter to whoever sent it. Unless there are negative implications to not replying to the e-mail, you are likely to ignore it because you feel this way.
Now we make exceptions all the time and reply to impersonal messages. But there are special emotions that come with receiving a personal message. You feel obligated to respond to the sender because you get the impression that the person genuinely is interested in hearing back from you. When this happens you are more eager to prioritize a response to the sender. If you don’t get a personal message you feel as though, even if you did respond it wouldn’t mean much.
The classic example of this would be when someone misses a day of class, and send out a mass e-mail to everyone asking what class was about. The first thing that comes to mind is, “Someone probably already replied, and I don’t have time to do it if no one has replied yet”. If it was someone I knew or if they singled me out, my reaction would be totally different. But because they didn’t ask me personally, I don’t feel much of an obligation to respond.
Now, there are so many different scenarios that could play out differently, each would require different responses, but for the most part we enjoy attention. We like hearing our name and like it when someone takes the time to care about our opinion.
So next time you send out a mass “what happened in class?” message” keep this in mind.
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