ご無沙汰いたしました — OK for electronic communications?


In a recent [comment
exchange](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/38494/what-does-jus-
folks-is-jus-dumb-mean/38496#38496) on ELU.SE, a Japanese man (my senior in
years, and a "guest" in the forum whose questions I had answered regularly for
some time, but not much lately as I have been scaling back my participation
there), said in his comment to my response:

> お久しぶりです。

I felt obliged to respond in kind with

> ご無沙汰いたしました。

and that is how I replied. But it just felt a little strange in a comment-
chain discussion. What do you think? Might こちらこそ or something else have been
better?




In response to the post's title, I think, yes, it's OK for electronic
communications. But `ご無沙汰しています` (it's usually 〜ています or 〜ております) sounds weird
for such a casual acquaintance (if he's even that much to you). I think it's
reserved for very close and/or very important relationships (extended family
members, past teachers/professors/senpai, old friends, etc.). For just an
acquaintance, I'd probably just respond with an equal `久しぶりですね`.

I'm not sure of `こちらこそ` in this situation. It sounds fine to _me_ , but I'll
let someone else more knowledgeable comment on that.

* * *

**EDIT** : I did find some examples where it was ご無沙汰 **しました／いたしました** and had
the same meaning. Guess I learned something.




In response to the post's title, I think, yes, it's OK for electronic
communications. But `ご無沙汰しています` (it's usually 〜ています or 〜ております) sounds weird
for such a casual acquaintance (if he's even that much to you). I think it's
reserved for very close and/or very important relationships (extended family
members, past teachers/professors/senpai, old friends, etc.). For just an
acquaintance, I'd probably just respond with an equal `久しぶりですね`.

I'm not sure of `こちらこそ` in this situation. It sounds fine to _me_ , but I'll
let someone else more knowledgeable comment on that.

* * *

**EDIT** : I did find some examples where it was ご無沙汰 **しました／いたしました** and had
the same meaning. Guess I learned something.

