On Email

To contact us Click HERE
I just sent an email to my Representative in Congress. That got me thinking about how now it seems like we have always had email. Email or e-mail, is a word that did not exist not too long ago.
You either hate or love it. It has changed how we communicate, touch base, and share things we think about. Today, email is incessant. It can be important, mundane, or humorous. You cannot tell until you open it whether it is a note from a loved one, or an offer to make some part of your body bigger. It can be an effective way to build and maintain a relationship with an old or new friend, client, or customer. 
Email can be a great tool. But, it also has a dark side. Some people just send too many emails, often on things that are totally irrelevant. I am not sure why they view an email address differently from a phone number. Can you imagine if someone called you every time they get some sweet sappy graphic in their inbox? 
Would you consider that "normal" behavior, or would you suggest Valium? I thing email "hugs" sux too. Want to give me a hug? Hell, I'm available. The secret is to delete the ones you don't have time for, defer the ones you want to get to later, and read the ones you deign significant. Some do that based upon the sender, others use the title as the discriminator in the "trash/read" decision. 
Some people take even a simpler approach. If it's over a week old and nothing has hit the fan...it can be safely deleted! We process more data daily in email than we ever did in the old before computer (BC) days. I am unconvinced we are any more efficient or productive as a result of email. 
One of the real dangers of email is it lets you dump a full emotional response on paper to something you read or hear. You can write things you could never say to a colleague, boss, or subordinate. Some former employees I know hit send after completing that emotional dump on paper. That's just dumb. 
I had an engineer who used to do that every time he got perturbed with a customer. The second time he hit send like that, was the last email he sent from the company. Was there really a time" Before Computers"? I recall getting my first "personal" HP computer. I was then working for General Dynamics in the early 1980s. I was one of the first to get one. I think it was because my boss knew I had just driven down to Long Beach to get one of those new Atari 800's and spent the $1000 + it cost by the time you added all the accessories you needed to make it work. He figured I had the necessary skills to use one I guess. 
I never told him my Atari was for Donkey Kong. (Anyone need any 5 1/4 floppies by the way?)
But now I'm wandering in recollection. Back to the subject here: email! I recall sending my first email. It was on something called ARPANET. I think was a Unix based system. I was teaching at a University and wanted to send an email to someone in Washington. (They say a true geek never forgets their first time!) I recall it was awkward to do. I needed a computer science type to talk me through the process. I just really wanted to see what it was like to send email. 
After that first one, I wondered if email was really something that would ever catch on. We all had computers, but not email, there was no such thing as networking then. We used our computers mostly for word processing and putting together charts and vu-graphs to teach our classes. There were heated discussion that the Internet ought to be opened up to permit commercial use. The professors around me were aghast at that idea....some of the wiser non-Luddite types predicted that would result in a total collapse of the system and society too!
Despite my early use of email, it wasn't until early 1990 my office in St. Louis got email and I could sit at my desk's workstation and communicate with other offices, commands, and companies. One outcome of the increased use of email is that old adage of "Action Passed - Action Complete" is often in effect. It means that your intended recipient passes your missive to someone else. Thereafter, the initial recipient considers the action closed. That new "forwarded" recipient lets it stew, deletes, or files your email. Will you ever see an answer? A meaningful response is an "iffy" proposition.
But, back to the start of this, my email to my Congressman. Members of Congress must love email! Now software can scan my incoming email, pick out a few key words and print out a reply. Given an auto-pen, no human intervention has to occur in the entire process. 
I think I should send him all my spam some of the "pharma-spam" written by those non-English speakers who are completely sure I am stressed over the size of my "member." Maybe there are a bunch who are stressed over that, but life tends to throw so much at ya sometimes, I cannot even imagine getting down the list to where that detail is shown. 
But all that gets me wondering what would happen if I forwarded on one of those "driven here insan" and "saze of ur manhood" emails to my Congressperson. I expect I would get a response that they "supports the environment" and will strive to insure healthcare for "All biological constituents" and is very concerned about obesity in wolves who are suffering from higher airfares. You think I am making this up don't you? 
OK, maybe I have stretched it a bit on the part about the flying "canine lupus." But trust me, if my Congressperson is like yours, it isn't that big of a stretch.