There are people who are “connected” and use e-mail, through their desktop, notebooks and smart phones and who make it a point to not only check their e-mail often, but respond to it. Then there are others who have decided (and I think it’s a conscious choice) to be what could be called a peripheral user. These folks check in just periodically and may or may not respond by e-mail….they actually find it easier to pick up the phone and call. There are also fringe groups who have no e-mail access at all but I’m not going there.
I’m no spring chicken (62 and counting) but I just do NOT understand the later two groups (limited or no e-mail participation). I’ll grant that the junk mail, and the requirement for filters and anti-virus, can get to be a bit distracting. That having been said, the ability to communicate in almost real time (to my way of thinking) supersedes the hassle. The kids get it (with their texting and IM), probably too much….but they are using the wonderful technological tools that twenty years ago were unthinkable to most of us. They’ve been using computers since their first days in school in many cases, and their ability to access the world’s information is wonderful. Not to date myself, but I do remember many a day that I had to trek to the local library (it was about a three mile jaunt, and we’d hitchhike or take the bus or walk) to get information for a late report or school project. If the entire class had been given the same subject your chance of finding decent reference material was slim to none, and there was no inter-library system back then that was usable for a school kid. Today that same information, magnified a zillion times, is available at the home or notebook or smart-phone keyboard in seconds and I’m just awed by how information access has improved over the last few decades.
This all brings me back to my rant, which comes down to this: I find it difficult to imagine going back to the pen and paper letter mode of communication as a primary source, and I can’t imagine not having the world’s newspapers available 24/7 on line, as well as the rest of the internet information gold mine. There are problems and hassles….phishing, junk, porn etc that goes on & on. The upside is so wonderful and grand we’d be greatly diminished if it wasn’t available to us. Sometimes we do get TOO connected, and we have to make choices on our responses….but it’s great to be able to make these communication choices in 2007. See you on the web! Bob Payette
