Email: Bad or Good?

One day after I heard a discussion on TV about people these days who are relying to much on modern technology. The discussion was specifically focused on electronic mail or e-mail for short. I don’t know why the speaker was talking mostly about e-mails but what he had just said had sparked some thought in me.

The discussion about e-mail was that people who rely on e-mail to much may have a hard time socializing with people in person whereas they can get the advantage of it by receiving and sending messages to anyone in the world, whether they met person or not, anytime of the day.

So I sat down and gave it some thought. E-mails both have its pros and cons but if you avoid getting too much of both you can actually use it healthily.

The good part of using e-mails is that you can send unlimited messages to anyone around the globe and receive it anytime of the day. It is like sending snail mail to people around the globe but with e-mail you don’t pay for anything, you don’t need to write it down and you receive your replies faster than any mail carrier can bring. Although you don’t receive your e-mail replies as fast as text messaging (unless you turn on your computer 24 hours a day) it is still more convenient and faster that ordinary mail. Also, in e-mailing people no one can tell if you made up the excuse to get out of some boring online club. And the best thing about using e-mails is that you are honing your skills to express yourself in paper (or screen), and it was always faster and less tiring to type that to write.

But, e-mail also has it downs. By using the e-mail to much you can lose social skills and be ashamed and reposed in a time when you have to talk to a person face to face. It was always a part of growing up before (when there were no computers) that you know how to talk to a person properly. No mumbling, no fidgeting, don’t swallow your words, eye to eye, keep your head up. Those were the things you need to keep in mind when you are talking to someone before, out of respect and courtesy of the person you are talking to. Nowadays, some (not all) modern people look down when elders talk to them and just mumble out their words. I always try to avoid doing so even though it takes all the will in me to respect people. Although, modern skills, such as typing, are sought after in jobs communicating skill are never out of use.

I think the answer to this never-ending debate is that everyone who is concerned should balance both person to person speaking and e-mailing. Because with both balanced you can succeed better.