Most of us say ‘thank you’ for the many things we either receive as a gift or something said to us as a kindness—a birthday gift, a door held open for us, a ‘bless you’ after a sneeze. There are probably hundreds—maybe thousands, of reasons we say ‘thanks.’ It’s been ingrained in us from childhood.

Work email? Sure! ‘Thank you’ is at the bottom of most of my emails, just above my name—and a ‘thank you!’ with an exclamation point after it for emphasis —I’ve seen it many times and it’s probably a woman who signed it that way.

It’s a well-mannered thing to say or do for a courtesy received. We, as a society, still send ‘thank you’ cards don’t we? There are many varieties to choose from, so I’m betting people, not only buy them, but send them at the appropriate time. A thank you for a wedding or Christmas gift, a great job someone did for you, or the favor that was done after you had asked.

So it’s no surprise to me really—that when Alexa, in her pleasant female voice, says, “okay” after I ask her to set an alarm or turn on a light, that it feels perfectly normal to say, ‘thank you’. It’s weird, but I find that I cannot not say it—even to a non-entity like Alexa, the persona for Amazon’s Echo smart hub.

By Alice Deeny