Jaded Eye Look at Email

...dusts off soap box, climbs on and assumes ranting pose Last week, one of the sessions that I went to was regarding the use of email. It wasn't what I expected, I thought it was going to be something new and interesting, rather it was just a list of what essentially amounted to "netiquette". I would have thought that most people would understand things like include subjects and having the body of the message at least reference previous conversations if not quote them. But I was wrong. I know people are often lazy and don't put in the subject line, but it takes a special kind it seems to create non-sequetor emails. What got me posting on this is it seems that one of the groups (not saying professional or personal) seems to do this all the time and is it ever aggravating. To the point that had I not had Spotlight (or the patience to store all my email and the ability to search it quickly) I would have junked it all. It seems to me that the rift between users and what essentially amount to "posers" with regards to using even the most basic elements of communications technology is opening up in my corner of the world again. And what shocks me is that these people are supposedly educated and are educating others (though likely not on the use of any form of communication, though I would think that is what all teaching is in some manner or another). Really, is it that hard to take that extra half second and put in those little details that will make your communication effective? This post seems timely in some cosmic blogosphere manner as Mr. Mackenty noted that his kids had a comment regarding the use of what is essentially "SMS speak" and I had a similar conversation with my niece the just a couple of days ago as well. To some degree I can see that manipulating text in creative ways is something that people will enjoy experimenting with, but there should be a time and place - often defined by the people who are going to be attempting to access whatever message you are trying to send. /hops off the box Technorati Tags: Email, Rant, Technology Integration