Assignment 10: E-mail Efficiency

In my research of this topic, I found some shocking information regarding e-mail and its usage. To me, e-mail is just another technology that I can use to communicate with others. As a college student, I have never realized the benefits of it. E-mail allows me to communicate with my advisor, my fraternity, my friends, my mom, and my distant relatives ON MY OWN TIME. Sometimes I feel that it even elicits faster responses than a phone call.

When I talked to three adults about their e-mail usage, all of the results were very similar. All three of the adults work in office atmospheres where they are in front of a computer screen for most of the day or attending office meetings. One of the three interviewees has a blackberry with internet capabilities. All three people said that in the business world, e-mail is extremely important. They rely on it to receive and send memos and communicate with their families and friend alike. My mother said, “I don’t know what I would do at work without e-mail because I would be bored all day.” The second person I interviewed stated that she has her e-mail open on her computer so that instantly when she receives an e-mail she is notified. In a way, this acts like an instant messenger feature.

All three people said that they get anywhere from about 20-50 e-mails per day depending on the season, what business is going on, and what is going on in their personal lives. I found it interesting that they all use their business e-mail as their personal e-mail as well. They spend on and off about 2 hours a day depending on whether or not the work they are doing is going to be e-mailed to someone or not. My mother stated that all of the e-mail she receives is important, especially the ones she gets from me which I found to be funny because she also calls me everyday. My aunt and uncle, the other two interviewees, said that most of the e-mail they get is junk. They are pharmacists and they get advertisements and junk e-mail from companies and legal services all over the world.

E-mail simplifies everyone’s lives is an understatement to them. They cannot fathom picking up the phone and calling everyone that they e-mail and nor could I.

E-mail might have some negative implications as well. For starters, it is a less personal approach to communicating with someone but in the business world, being personable is not valued; it is all about getting the job done and doing it as efficiently as possible.