Re: [NTLK] OT Are we stupid?

~~~ On 2007/08/10 19:14, Dale Raby at daleraby@gmail.com wrote ~~~

> I also lost a friend of ten years as a direct result of email availability
> (and let's be fair; my own bad judgment and short temper).

...and then, there's the fact that with e-mail, it's too easy to click
"Send" before you've really thought about what you've written. In the days
of letter-writing, the whole procedure was slow enough to let you cool down
if you'd been writing in a huff, and you generally had the chance to think
about what you were saying and how you were saying it. Now, you can have a
raging fit and express it as fully and harshly as inflamed emotions will
allow, typing at speeds only fury can achieve. Then while your blood is
still at near-boiling, you can press the "send" key, and off it goes. By
the time you've had a mug or glass of your favourite beverage, reflected on
the whole matter and decided your first reaction was a bit too heated,
they've already had time to read it, feel hard done by, become sorely
aggrieved and decide you need a d***ed good earful to put you back in your
place. Just as you're sitting down to write an apology, or at least an
excuse for your earlier bad temper, you're confronted with their blistering
reply consisting of a number of very unflattering re-evaluations of your
character, intelligence, judgement and taste, perhaps finishing with advice
as to where you should go and how to get there. We can draw a veil over the
rest...

I've also heard of several instances where confidential information was
exchanged about people, and the forwarded either accidentally or
deliberately to others, sometimes including the person the information was
about. Even when such confidential information has to be exchanged (as in
some kinds of working arrangements) this kind of thing can cause permanent
hurt and resentment.

All in all, the ease of e-mail can be a very mixed blessing.
 
Shalom.
Christian

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

³Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from a Newton.²
            -- What Arthur C. Clarke meant to say

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(With thanks to Chod Lang)
http://tinyurl.com/29y2dl

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