Email: The Staple of This Generation
So I walk in this morning, still half asleep, stumbling down the hall to the Marketing suite and slapping myself to wake up. OK, well maybe it wasn’t that dramatic, but you catch my drift. I was tired. And what’s the first thing on my agenda? Check my Outlook email. It’s routine; it’s robotic.
Man, how ever did we survive without this “electronic mail”? With the click of a button, you’re able to access messages, send messages, organize your calendar, obtain your to-do task list, organize contacts…and the list goes on.
Apparently, Gmail – Google’s email service – went down Monday for a couple of hours “inconveniencing millions of users”. Seriously? Inconveniencing? Go use your phone to contact someone, or better yet, go outside and take a walk – a walk away from your computer. Enjoy the fresh air.
Now I admit that I use email more than the average person. Of course, I use it here at work to transmit messages to other employees about work stuff. And I’m an avid user of Gmail at home to connect with family members and friends. But there’s no way I’m tied to email 24/7. In fact, when I get home, I don’t even turn on my computer.
Nowadays you can have alerts sent to your mobile letting you know you have a new email message. Wow. Whatever to sending a letter to a friend? So it takes a couple more days than you’d like – but at least it’s more personal and thought out. Or how about actually visiting the person face-to-face if possible?
Sure email definitely has its rewards. But do its disadvantages outweigh the advantages?
In today’s society, when so much technology is integrated into our daily lives, are we really that much more advanced as human beings?
August 14, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I’ll be the first to say that email, along with other new forms of instant communication, are great. However with that said, and this goes way back before email, technology has been destroying society for a while now.
It used to be back in the time before air conditioning people would sit out on their porches and talk to their neighbors because it was cooler outside than inside. However, since air conditioning has spread so far & wide, people no longer have a need to sit outside when it is now cooler inside. The result? People don’t know their neighbors. I’ve lived on the same block for 15 years and I’ve only known 3 neighbors, and 2 of them are no longer on my block. Notice how older houses have porches and new houses don’t?
I took a geography course in college around the time cellular phones began to become easily affordable & accessible to the general public. I can still remember the professor saying, “When I first started teaching I liked dismissing the class because I’d see everyone talk about class as they walked out. Now when I dismiss class everyone reaches into their pockets and then reaches out to touch someone anywhere else outside the classroom.” The result? Less kids are talking to each other in school, less kids are helping each other in school, and most kids are missing out on an important part of school, meeting other people.
Email is great when you can’t call someone or see them face-to-face. I also see the enormous advantage of having it in the business world for large companies and people with Type A personalities. But the average person should not have to depend so much on 1 thing. I’ve seen kids be dramatic enough to say, “I’d die without my cell phone.” As we are witnessing in our current energy crisis we can not let ourselves depend on 1 thing too much (ex. Gas).
I believe this topic can be opened up to a much wider discourse over the negative effects of technological and, to an extent, industrial growth. There are definite advantages and disadvantages. It seems to be, from my point of view, that everything that is made to make life simpler usually leaves us a little worse off. People could take the time to cook every day, but it’s so much easier to purchase fattening food off a dollar menu around the corner. People could walk to that dollar menu around the corner, but it’s so much easier to spend a little extra cash on gas to drive to it. People could learn to play musical instruments and be creative, but it’s so much easier to waste time playing a video game that simulates it. People could read books & novels, but it’s so much easier to sit in front of a TV. People could write letters or pick up the phone to communicate, but it’s so much easier with email. See a pattern?