Is There Life After Email?
Debt Armageddon is all well and good, but what about something really serious? From the I-wish-I-could-do-that department, Techcrunch columnist MG Siegler gives life without email a go and reports:
Here’s the key takeaway that became very clear in the past month: the vast majority of emails are unnecessary. Even if you think they’re important at the time you get them, they’re usually not. Our brains are just hard-wired to respond to emails because society has taught us it’s rude not to. We think of them as letters — even the icons for apps like Gmail and Mac Mail make us think of them this way. It’s rude not to respond to a letter.
Screw that.
Such courtesy should go right out the same window that the U.S. Postal Service is heading out of. This is a new age, a different medium, and there needs to be different norms. In the past, it was likely that only your close friends and relatives would have your address to be able to send you a letter. And it would take days or even weeks to get there. Email is totally different.
The question I am pondering right now: Would I get more done and have a more fulfilling life without email?
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May '10
Re: Is There Life After Email?
Let's put it this way, if one were to adapt MG Siegler's "screw that" attitude, I would suspect that one wouldn't have to worry about important email anyway. Because after a couple of months of being a rude sob everything important would stop. Nothing from friends, family or employers - just the spam.
My life would be better without all forms of electronic media and communication. But since I don't have the money to make that happen I had better pay attention.
Jun '10
Re: Is There Life After Email?
A provocative question, to which I am sending a lengthy response. Check your email.
Edited on Aug 2, 2011 at 10:10amJul '10
Re: Is There Life After Email?
Evidently Siegler just outed himself as someone that his friends don't find is worth talking to. There's a qualitative difference between the email noise (ads, spam, notifications) and actual emails from people wanting to discuss something with you. Unless you're replacing the latter with something (texting/phoning/face-to-face communication) or planning on being a hermit, you're going to miss out on a lot if you ignore your emails.
Apr '11
Re: Is There Life After Email?
Email is only past its prime in relation to the new always online methods of communication. We've replaced time delayed messaging with the constant bug-in-your-ear open channel of texts, IMs, tweets, etc. The key difference for me is that emails only intrude on my workflow if I choose to let them. Texts, IMs and the like can all interupt me unless I actively turn them off. And since none of these services provide a good means for lengthy exchanges of information, there will always be a need for a method of long form, time delayed communication
Re: Is There Life After Email?
This represents a liberation. And that email of yours in my inbox, George? I won't be answering it.
May '10
Re: Is There Life After Email?
We need something to replace the old, paper-based mail, because that is assuredly going away. That communications medium will carry a more "formal" sort of communication, exactly the sort of thing that has always moved through the postal service (and which has always paid the bills for the postal service) because it is important for business and government. The growing demand for something cheaper than snail-mail will find a supply in response.
Now our personal communications, especially the more ephemeral "chat" that is popular at present, can and probably will find a better medium than email. Already text messaging seems to be picking up much of it, and that is a better place for that sort of interaction.
My guess is that there will be plenty of email in the future, but we will use it differently.
Re: Is There Life After Email?
My overlap with Siegler is in the matter of unnecessary "carbon copying." The incremental cost of CC'ing the nth person on an email--including the inevitably dense Word or Powerpoint attachment--is nil. And that's the trouble. I get scads each day, some of which may actually be important. But how do I discern, say, the preliminary draft about to be superseded and the completely peripheral from the critical piece of business correspondence that I must review?
I enjoy messages from friends and colleagues that are directed at me. However, email triage--especially distribution list attachment review-- occupies an unfortunately large chunk of my day.
Edited on Aug 2, 2011 at 10:55amMar '11
Re: Is There Life After Email?
I suspect Laura Vanderkam would say "Yes". She is the author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think
May '10
Re: Is There Life After Email?
I am fine with e-mail, provided that there is a good, smart spam filter. Every benefit has a cost, weigh your own situation.
For the work I do, and for family communications, it is a life-saver.
May '10
Re: Is There Life After Email?
What you're really saying is that you need a trusty personal assistant (in the old days known as a "secretary".) I am available depending on your budget, of course, and with the caveat that I will not pick up your dry cleaning or sit on your lap during dictation.
Feb '11
Re: Is There Life After Email?
One impact of email and other forms of electronic communication has been to undercut the whole concept of delegation. Geography and time factors once *forced* delegation, even on managers/executives whose personalities were not well-fitted to the concept; now, too many are tempted to micromanage.
Once not too long ago, there was the concept of an "acting manager"...someone going on vacation or an extended business trip would delegate one of his subordinates to act in his absence, with a formal delegation of authority which typically included everything but changes to organization and compensation. This provided valuable experience to the subordinate, as well as getting the manager out of the day-to-day loop for a while. Now, the manager going on a trip will usually just keep in constant touch; no delegation happens.
Someone actually wrote a book on how the introduction of the telegraph changed the way the diplomatic service operated.
Oct '10
Re: Is There Life After Email?
Donald E. Knuth, who is consistently a couple of decades ahead of everybody else, abandoned email on January 1st, 1990.
In my own 2004 paper, The Internet Slum, I argued that the future might be what I referred to as “Internet Gated Communities” or, alternatively, “The Faculty Club”. Ricochet is precisely what I was imagining at the time.
Jan '11
Re: Is There Life After Email?
One of my former employers advised everyone that he receives hundreds (dozens? thousands? the volume changed constantly) of emails every day. I suppose he wanted everyone to know how important he was.
Anyway, his solution was to ask people (who really needed to get in touch with him) to send him several emails. He told us that we shouldn't expect a response if we only sent a single message, because it would get lost in his flood. He was a textbook example of someone whose solution exacerbated the problem he was trying to solve.
Emails are like any other technology -- they make some things better or easier, but they can also accelerate stupidity.
Feb '11
Re: Is There Life After Email?
George Savage:
I enjoy messages from friends and colleagues that are directed at me. However, email triage--especially distribution list attachment review-- occupies an unfortunately large chunk of my day. · Aug 2 at 10:54am
Edited on Aug 02 at 10:55 am
I remember email from the early 1980s. No, that isn't a typo. How clunky email was then. You had to literally sort through every file on the server no matter who was receiving it. My reaction then was: Who's ever going to use this. Email is a complete waste of time. Plus no security.
So what I'm saying is, you're actually describing a business opportunity. And it wouldn't be that hard to code. You'd be able to teach the email program what is and what is not important. A good AI project for a grad student.
Apr '11
Re: Is There Life After Email?
I have nothing to add save I did find this an wonderful anecdote. My friend Dave Sim became friends with Peter Straub after he had called to order one of Sim’s books. There is some sort of Luddite streak in Sim that allowed him to have a computer and use it but abhorred the internet.
Anyway, he sent Straub a letter, just out of habit, commenting on one of Straub’s books and Peter sees so few letters anymore, he was so charmed that Straub’s wife had called Sim when Peter was in the hospital for heart troubles, begging him to send another letter to make him feel better...
(Wow, that looks more Name Droppy than I had meant it too..)
Nov '10
Re: Is There Life After Email?
I really disagree with Siegler. The problem is not the tool, it's how it's used. People simply don't know how to use e-mails. I am the Director of IT for a medium sized manufacturing company, so a while ago I set about training people how to use e-mail. I don't mean how to attach files and where is the address book. I mean how to effectively communicate using e-mail. But it's like climbing up a rope: it requires constant effort, because for some reason folks just want to use e-mail as if they were having a casual conversation. If I had more than 200 words I'd publish my e-mail guidelines. But alas...
Re: Is There Life After Email?
Ken, I'm on the edge of my seat hoping for your guidelines. But you are wisely following the direction of our own editor-in-chief Rob Long: never give away your intellectual property for free.
Edited on Aug 2, 2011 at 1:11pmRe: Is There Life After Email?
George Savage
Ken, I'm on the edge of my seat hoping for your guidelines. But you are wisely following the direction of our own editor-in-chief Rob Long: never give away your intellectual property for free. · Aug 2 at 1:09pm
May '10
Re: Is There Life After Email?
Never? I thought is was a prerequisite. Boy, am I getting hosed.
On the other hand, if I didn't post on Ricochet my wife says my head will explode and cover the walls with disdain, sarcasm and vitriol... and she'd make me clean it up.
Feb '11
Re: Is There Life After Email?
I receive daily emails informing me of updates and news in such different categories as book groups, political groups, tech groups, religious groups, fitness sites of which I am a member and more. I also get the latest news from my school (Cleveland State University) and my church. It is also my preferred way of staying in contact with my extended family.
Nope, you ain't takin' it.