Talk to Me

Can the rumor be true? Can the people who run the place where I work really be considering limiting the use of electronic mail? Or, can they actually be thinking of putting a stop to it? If so, I am willing to be the first one to stop using e-mail.

Am I wrong, or is e-mail an overrated phenomenon? The claims about sending correspondence from computer to computer are impressive. You would think that e-mail—which is seldom used for conveying an idea more complex than "Let's have lunch "—is the greatest thing since Gutenberg invented the printing press. That's Johann Gutenberg, by the way. Notguten @ mainz.com.

Imagine for a moment that it was e-mail and not the telephone that was invented in 1876. Now imagine that it was the telephone and not e-mail that was developed a century later. Wouldn't we all be throwing away our key-boards while praising the phone as the hot new communications medium of the moment? No more typing, boss! We can actually hear each other!

But no. Many of us are excited to let our fingers do the talking. The foolishness of this is most evident in offices where private e-mail systems allow people who sit a few meters from one another to communicate via computer. Which they gladly do. (Or in the office where I work, "Message me.") What ever happened to "Talk to me"?

People who are crazy about e-mail—and there is no shortage of them—love to say that it is convenient. They point out that the recipient doesn't even have to be at the receiving end, that the message can simply be left for him or her. Well, I leave handwritten notes for my wife on the kitchen table all the time, and nobody seems to think it's a communications revolution. E-mail fans also like to point out that their favorite medium is fast-fast-fast. But since when is typing faster than speaking? Only when you can type faster than 200 or so words per minute, that's when.

OK! Let's admit that e-mail is useful if you want to drop a line to, say, 342 people at one time. And let's admit that it's a relatively cheap way for someone in Boston to leave a message for someone in Kanchipuram, India, assuming that both parties possess computers, modems, and are familiar with the Internet. But taking a trip through cyberspace to communicate with someone at the next desk, down the hall, or even in a branch office? Please, don't you think it's a bit too much?

You don't have to use e-mail for long to realize its down side. It eliminates face-to-face conversation and everything that goes with it. Gone are tone of voice, and personal characteristics. Gone are audio and visual clues to personality. Gone is any sense of self, replaced by text that looks the same no matter who is typing at the other end.

Of course, none of this signals the end of civilization as we know it. A few e-mail messages a day seems pretty harmless. The problem comes when these messages isolate the people at their desks, discouraging them from looking one another in the eye. When we are cut off from co-workers, our sense of community and common purpose gradually disappears.

In the place where I work, we no longer chat or gossip very much. The messages that we send are so lifeless that computer fans have invented a bunch of symbols to convey feelings. Meanwhile, people are wondering why spirits are low. What this office needs—what this country needs—is more water coolers. And fewer keystrokes.

Sadly, it is customary for many journalists these days to publish their e-mail addresses at the end of their stories or columns. This supposedly makes them more "easy to reach". What it really does, of course, is make them reachable to the relatively small number of people who own computers and modems compared to folks who own telephones. So please, don't try me at cobb @ nws.globe.com. I'll be at 929-2961 instead.