Saturday 10 December 2011

Thought for the day (no. 207)

More views of - or after - Cambridge Film Festival 2011
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)


10 November

If e-mail didn't exist, it wouldn't be necessary to invent it


Oh, I'm sure that there are people who say that e-mail is great, but what is so great about:

* Getting into misunderstandings with the capacity - at one's cost - to reply almost instantaneously?;

* All that spam (or, if one tries to filter it out, not getting the messages that one would have wanted)?;

* A message (which, of course, is just as true of text-messages) that, if it arrives at all, arrives after the event to which one was invited, and which has the double curse of one's not only having missed what might have been beneficial (maybe even fun), but looking rude for not responding (or just feeble, if one tries to explain)?

* Not to mention the outgoing message, written at length and with great care, that should have won the match, but, unknown, never went (non-delivery reports come at other times, when one is short of time, the message has to go, and, for some unaccountable reason, it won't)?;

* At least one message per week that has to be answered some time, will not go away, but needs a immense deal of tact and thought as to how to employ it - if one has learnt the lesson of the first point above - to reply to?: oh, for being able to break away from this medium altogether, and just clear the air face to face!

And whilst we're doing that with that weekly or more tricky message, why not just quietly ditch e-mail as a whole...?


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