Email
changed many things. The word mail shouldn’t be confused with the mail
of yore.
For
one, email is supposedly delivered in seconds. This means that not getting a
reply for many days (think--more than ten) can feel like an insult, specifically with personal emails.
Email
goes into the ether and, without a physical presence, depends on some form of acknowledgement
of receipt. In personal email, this means a reply. In business, it can be an
auto-receipt. Without either, it’s in the who-knows-if cloud.
The
other day, my email program let me know two personal emails bounced for some
technical reason. I re-sent them, and they didn’t get a “bounce” message the
second time. Later, both friends asked me why I had sent twice, as they got it
the first time.
At
the mercy of this non-physical world, I could only mumble something about the
bounce notifications having to do with some protocol/permissions that someone
somewhere on the interwebs explained in terms neither I nor my friends
understand.
Marvelous
thing, this email business. But I confess I feel helpless sometimes when I can’t
understand or imagine its path to my dear ones or the professionals I am
dealing with.
The
mystery of carrier pigeons is, at least, something the mind’s eye can envision.
Ditto for physical mail.
But
email remains a black hole. It swallows, and when it works, it spits out.
It's not always instant though. Sometimes I will email my husband and I won't get a response. Then he'll come home and I'll say, "Did you get my email about such and such?" and he'll say no. He'll show me on his phone that there's no email. I will then show him on my phone that I sent it. Then suddenly bells will ring and it appears magically and the argument ends with a sigh and a grunt. lol Same thing happens with text messages. It's crazy!
ReplyDeleteI love email, even when it seems gremlins are in my computer.
ReplyDeleteWhatever the glitches, email remains a marvel. I remember when I used to be abroad and the one way I could connect with family and friends was by writing aerograms, something no one in the younger generations would even recognize. In those days, international phone calls were prohibitively expensive. That I can now communicate with friends around the world in seconds is nothing short of a miracle, so I don't mind putting up with the snags, bumps, and occasional failures.
ReplyDeleteI think email is great for business but not so much for personal contact. There's a huge generational gap where younger people (like my kids' generation) simply ignore them and use it only for business. They want a text, a Marco Polo or even a phone call but none of them respond much to emails. Perhaps it's like Facebook and now only for old people?
ReplyDeleteNo one thinks you have to respond INSTANTLY, Evelyn. But no response to true friends personal emails for many days (to quote myself above) is telling of a wish to distance, unless there are other serious considerations going on.
ReplyDeleteWhat Karen Jones Gowen said about younger folks no engaging via Email (it is a generational thing, I've learned) still holds in that they do respond within a few days to personal texts. When they don't, they themselves call it "ghosting." It's a passive-aggressive dismissal, or just plain bad manners.
That's my take.
I greatly prefer email to the telephone. It's more convenient and less intrusive.
ReplyDelete