What’s your reaction when you hear of a lawyer who still doesn’t use e-mail, or worse yet, has his secretary open and process his e-mail? It’s sort of shocking to hear of a professional who doesn’t use e-mail. You think they are backward, behind the times, a faithful follower of brother Ned Ludd or somehow just not a part of modern life.
You just have to love e-mail. "Here let me send you that document now" and an entire brief from a colleague appears, all ready to plunder. Not interupting someone to ask a simple question. Being able to communicate on a flexible schedule. It’s free. The sense of accomplishment when you finish a project and e-mail it off.
But, of course, you also have to hate e-mail. Spam. Receiving a joke for the 10th time. Those people who cannot be trained to consult Snopes.com before passing along some silly urban legend to everyone they know. Spam. Being BCC’d when you don’t care. Starting your day with 100 new e-mails in your inbox. Mysteriously vanishing e-mail. Did I mention spam?
So today I’d like to pass along a couple of essays on this topic to you that I read this week. One is from Dan Costa, PC Magazine columnist, gives us "50 Reasons Not to Send that E-mail" and one is from my colleague, Ellen Freedman who writes on "Our Love/Hate Relationship with E-mail." (PDF File)
You see? It’s not just you!