Ready or Not ... YOU'VE GOT MAIL!

E-mail is a major advance of the electronic age and the Internet. E-mail has changed our lives, and most of us regard it as a good thing. It enables rapid, cheap communication. It permits effortless distribution of copies or blind copies, so others who should be kept informed can be. It allows almost instant responses and a permanent record. It facilitates filing and retrieval, and can provide important background showing how a communication evolved.

The clear record of a writer's words either can be an asset or can return to haunt. E-mail is so simple to use, so inexpensive and quick, that it should be a great asset. However, all these advantages come with a cost: disadvantages that are not so well recognized. Confidential or sensitive information or opinions can easily end up in the wrong hands when a mistaken mouse click sends the e-mail to an unintended recipient, or when a confidential e-mail is left on a computer screen for others to see. Earlier confidential messages can be first sent as blind copies but then inadvertently included in the sequence of background messages to others, revealing sensitive thoughts and information to unintended recipients, with damage to the original writer.

Mischief can also result when e-mail messages are sent but not received or not opened. The sender then operates under the assumption that the message has been received when in fact it has not. Another problem is that the ease of responding to a provocative or nasty incoming e-mail can facilitate the an angry reply before the writer has the chance to consider the consequences. Once the send button is pressed, the message can almost never be retrieved.

Equally troublesome are the negative lifestyle changes wrought by e-mails. Because they are so easy to send, e-mails can accumulate in massive proportions. Busy, "well connected" individuals can receive hundreds per day. Although many messages might be unimportant, such a determination can often be made only by opening and reading them--and many must be opened and read to avoid missing something essential.

The result is that reading and responding to e-mail can consume many precious hours each day. This time requirement only worsens if we decide that a day of rest is justified, or if we merely opt out for any reason. The backlog builds to overwhelming proportions. The time required to catch up with this backlog is painful. Other activities, much needed exercise, business relationships, and even family relationships suffer. E-mail becomes a disabling disease of modern living, and e-mail slaves or junkies are commonplace.

What is the solution to these evils of e-mail? Good spam filters help, but other remedies are needed. The principal one is restraint on the part of all in sending messages. If each e-mail cost 50 cents to send, there would be far fewer initial messages or unnecessary replies. In-boxes would contain mostly important messages.

Restraint in sending e-mail should also be exercised with copies and blind copies. Perhaps a charge of 25 cents should be levied for each. E-mail volumes would quickly drop. Another remedy would be for each sender simply to pause and think for a moment before hitting the send button.

Some evils would be prevented if such forethought stopped a damaging or escalating response to a provocative message in our in-box. With such restraint might also come a quick check to be sure we are sending and copying the correct recipients.

If these reasonable measures do not suffice, there is always "E-mails Anonymous," a group that abandons e-mail completely. When it becomes known that Joe X or Mary Y never opens e-mail, their e-mail traffic may cease, but the world does not stop for them: They survive with conversations, phone calls, faxes, and post. From my perspective, a less radical solution would be preferable. There are still great advantages to e-mail. If restraint is employed, we can all gain these advantages without having to sacrifice the rest of our lives.