Today's topic: The use of e-mail as a communication device.
The Internet (invented by Al Gore, right?) has provided society with a fabulous way of communication that sends an electronic message (e-mail) to a recipient within the blink of an eye. This is quite the technological advance considering that the horse and buggy that was supposed to deliver my textbook about a month ago must have gotten caught in a blizzard somewhere and is stuck until the snow melts in april. If only we could send entire textbooks over the Internet (NOT in Adobe format).
But I digress.
E-mail, as well as the use of online messaging (AOL, Yahoo! MSN Messenger), has become quite the fad these days. In fact, it's such a fad that nobody bothers to talk to each other face to face anymore. I have noticed this unreal phenomenon more of late, but it really started a long time ago.
Once upon a time, I figured out that it would be a great deal easier to break up with someone if I sent them an email (bad idea, kiddies, it always comes back to bite you in the ass). That sent, the relationship was over, and things seemed to be simple. Then a few months later, I got what was coming, and someone (albeit someone else) broke up with me via email (I harbor no resentments, this was all FOUR YEARS AGO). Since then, emails that come in are sometimes dreaded. Later, one of my friends told me he didn't want to be friends with me over an email. That ended that friendship. It keeps going...after a bad one-night stand, the other party emailed me to let me know it was a mistake, after a date from heaven the other party IMed me to let me know it was over, etc, etc....
Finally I resorted to using email to the same low standards as everyone else. Once I got to college, I did (in no uncertain terms) let another person know exactly why it was that I hated them, and (go figure) let them know that I was changing my screen name solely so they wouldn't talk to me ever again.
I'm not saying email is all bad. But the point of this has yet to surface.
In the recent past, I've noticed a trend in emails. They are good for making announcements, or to bitch at people because it's easier than getting up the nerve to say it to their face. I was sent a mass email sometime after Thanksgiving to let me know that my former best friend was engaged. If we were, say, best friends, you'd think they'd send me an IM, at least? Since when do we stoop to announcing engagments in mass emails?? At least send individual ones. If you send them at all. I'd just like to state that I understand if maybe you're in a foreign country, then mass email is probably a better idea, because for goodness sake, if you're halfway across the ocean, it might get a little costly to be calling everyone to let them know, and a little time-consuming to email everyone individually since there are probably more people that you don't see than people that you do.
Another trend I've noticed is to send BAD NEWS via instant messenger! Like, oh by the way, here's some bad news for you, hope your computer doesn't shut down in the 12 hours between when I send it to you and you actually go back to your room to read it? For example, my family decided to tell me that my grandparents are at my house for a while (it's a long story, if you know me, you'll understand, or at least ask me later for details if you feel so inclined) over IM?? That is after I found out secondhand from someone else's computer. I would have liked to have been the first to find out, given the choice between my boyfriend and myself. However, that doesn't work. What if my computer had shut down? What if I got home in a few days and "surprise! oops, you didn't get my IM??" Yeah. Not cool. That kind of news should be addressed in, the very least, a phone message. I check messages compulsively, since nobody ever calls me, not to mention I have two phone lines to be reached by (in Ripon even, wow)...so really, there's no excuse.
The bottom line is, if you have something to say, say it. Don't resort to emails or IMs, at the very least an individual email is better than a mass one, and a phone message is overall better than an IM. Besides, with the other technological breakthrough known as the cell phone, you never know exactly when it is that I'll have my cell phone with me. It's probably more often than you think.
(Irony: All of this is in a weblog. Go figure).
- posted by L. @ 4:03 PM