Wednesday, June 18th, 2008...1:00 am
#30: Stop Using Email
Leave it to the evil young to get all of us alter kockers addicted to email, and then to abandon the form in favor of texting and facebook. Like waxing, email is proving to be one of the Great Age Divides. Old people can’t figure out why anyone would text, IM, or facebook (wait: is that a verb?) instead of email: How do you type with your thumbs? Why would you want everyone to read your posts? And young people hate emailing because it’s…..old.
Well, I don’t care if email is old: I can’t stop using it. That’s right, I’m addicted to it, just like I am to dark chocolate and nitrous oxide. I joined all those other services and now I don’t know what to do with them or on them or however you say it. So if you want to get in touch with me, send me an email at hownottoactold@gmail.com.
Twitter is the one with the tinyurl thats becoming the “short hand” email (if you will). So far ive not been a twitter but im sure I will get onto that soon!
Cheers! Jay
http://www.prodigitaltips.com/
I’m not even sure people over forty should try to adapt to Facebook. ;p My old youth group leader has joined Facebook, and she actually takes it seriously when fourteen-year-olds change their profiles to say they’re married to each other. I changed my relationship status b/c I didn’t want it broadcast to the entire world, and she sent me a message saying, “So sorry ur relationship status has changed!” like she assumed it meant I’d been dumped.
My mother goes the other way. She emails me all the time, but mixed in with those emails are tons of forwards: all the cutsey little stories, jokes, touching-whatevers that she and her elder ilk have passed on to one another. And it’s a completely closed loop of age on this one, because all I have to do is see that she’s received it from Uncle Larry, and passed it on to Uncle Tom, her high-school pal Susan, and this woman who she sees on walks. I’ve gotten in the habbit of simply deleting 90% of the emails she sends that don’t directly begin by addressing some pressing matter. Forwarded emails are so 98′.
We have a lot in common, namely, addiction to dark chocolate and nitrous oxide.
Hey, at least I follow the rules. I’m ACTUALLY smart enough NOT to get a Facebook (which is obviously NOT a verb; check the frickin’ dictionary), seeing as my MOTHER has one and would eventually find out. My phone is only for EMERGENCIES, duh. Oh, and another thing: JUST TRY AND BLAME ME FOR STAYING IN TOUCH WITH MY BEST FRIEND!
you can also restrict a brief (and i mean brief) message to the subject of the e-mail to make the message immediately apparent
Email is not gone, just used differently in the matrix of options for people to communicate – whether personal or professional – Text, FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, Mobile, Google Docs etc Each has its place. The key is to use them, rather than them using you. Understand what each is, then choose the ones that work in your life your way.