I love email. And I hate it at the same time. It can be the most amazing time saver. And it can be the bane of your existence. I’ve had the same (well one of them anyway) email address since 1992. Since before most people even knew what email was actually. And what I’ve noticed in the past 17 years is that communication has increased…. and communication skills have been inversely affected. That is, they have decreased.
Consider the letter. It has defined parts. The formal greeting… “Dear So-and-so, how are you…”
This is generally followed by the main content, the reason for the message. “I have encountered a problem and wonder if you could assist me….”
A short summary of some sort brings the letter to a close…. “I look forward to hearing from you soon so that we can resolve the issue…..”
And finally, a formal sign-off… “Sincerely…So-and-so”
No, the formal letter has all but disappeared. Instead, people send abrupt messages and I swear they sit in front of their machines thinking “well…answer me dammit!” “I’m waiting”.
If something is important, pick up the darned phone! If I’m not home, leave a voice message, at least you know that arrived, you just need to hope I get to my voice mail in a timely manner…and that Telus didn’t lose it somewhere along the line. Yet when people hit “send” they seem to have an unwavering faith in the shape and form of the internet and have an unyielding belief that the message will arrive and will be acted on instantly. I love the students that send me a message asking for an extension on an assignment….30 minutes before it’s due. Yeah… right…that’s gonna happen. And they seem shocked when they don’t get a mark because by the time I check my email it’s already a day late. If it’s important, think it over and contact me earlier…and make sure i actually received the message. Don’t hear from me within 24 hours…assume the message went into outer space somewhere and try some other means of contacting me.
But the formality, that really irks me too. I particularly love the students I’ve never met who send messages like this:
Hey Paige (excuse me? I’m your professor…)
I’m having behind schedule on some other classes won’t be able to get my assignment in on time. Hope that’s OK. (Uh, no, not really)
Thanks, (for what?)
Joe
First of all, I’m not your friend, I’m your teacher and I’m here to evaluate your performance. Secondly, how about a little help here, I teach three courses…exactly which one are you in and what assignment are we talking about? A little information can be useful. Don’t make me play cat and mouse to figure out where I’m supposed to look. And finally, why are you thanking me, I didn’t tell you I’d give you an extension. So I hope it’s OK with you that you are going to receive deductions on your assignment.
Did I have someone do this to me today? No. I had someone outside of my students do this to me last night. Instead of making sure I received an important communication via a reliable method, she sent an email asking me to do something a very short period of time before I was to be somewhere. She just got lucky that I did actually see it just before I left. I was highly tempted to pretend I did not receive the message and play innocent. But that would have been pulling the same passive aggressive techniques she is so highly skilled at. And I choose to not play the same childish games.
Email is a great tool, but it makes my hair stand on end when people think that hitting send absolves them of any further responsibility. I can’t stand the “But I sent you an email” excuse…. guess what…. just like snail mail …. sometimes emails don’t arrive. As the receiver, that’s not my fault. There was an example from Harvard not that long ago… delivery is not guaranteed… a series of Harvard acceptance letters were sent to successful applicants by email and they were deleted by AOL, as junk mail.
All that aside, email is still a wonderful tool and can make life easier than the phone on some occassions. Sometimes you need to have quick communication with someone and don’t want to get tied up in the formalities that a phone call also carries. But darn if I don’t want to reach out and slap some people sometimes for the way they use it.