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We have an enduring love hate relationship with email. It is the only original intra-network applications still enjoying major use today. It’s protocols have evolved into the pervasive and often intrusive system we rely on to communicate effectively today.
Every few years some new and upcoming company declares war on email and claims to have developed a better way only to utterly and completely fail. Anyone remember everybody’s pal Zuckerbrod announce Facebook Messages? Yeah how’d that work out? I honestly don’t know anyone who really uses it, certainly not anyone outside of Facebook (the company) that uses a facebook.com email address.
Honestly the two largest complaints about email are SPAM and extremely long messages. Um err the three largest complaints about email as SPAM, malware and extremely long messages. I mean the four largest complaints… O f the largest complaints about email these are chief among them;
- SPAM
- Malware
- Phishing
- Excessive attachments
- Lack of focus
- Extremely long messages
- Too many messages
Yes there are numerous things wrong with email however most of these problems are cultural and NOT technological. I remember when I first started using email for business when I was in the US Coast Guard and we were required to treat email with the same respect that we treated official correspondence. Eventually this practice relaxed, however; not to the point that is endured by many corporations.
I still treat every email I send as if it were official communication on printed letterhead. Too many people overlook the fact that as lamented as email may be it is still an extension of your personal brand. If you treat it with careless frivolity then you are poisoning your image.
I have an associate who transmits hundreds of jokes, photos and other questionable material via email a week. He has had to change email providers numerous times because he’s sent out virus laden messages and had his account hacked more often than I believe it is possible. I have a filter on my server that discards his messages before they even get processed by the antivirus and anti-spam systems. I don’t see why I should even waste time or system resources checking his messages to they are sent to the void before those programs see them. The sad thing is that he’s a very nice guy but his email reputation is mud.
Unfortunately, SPAM, viruses, phishing and malware are the only aspects of email that can be solved or at least addressed in part by technology. It is still necessary for users to be vigilant against clicking suspicious links in email. Whenever I receive a note claiming to be from a website that I frequent requiring me to click a link for some update. I open my browser and go to the site independently of that email because any site worth it’s salt would not send you an email to advise you with a convenience link.
Unfortunately, the remaining issues are 100% cultural and companies as well as individuals need to take responsibility for their use of email. I personally believe that breaking messages down into separate focused blocks of information is far more valuable than one long complicated letter. I’ve always appreciated shorter messages that are focused on 1 – 3 related nuggets of information over a encyclopedia of meandering thoughts.
I always hated those catch all email the entire company and everyone at the client that could possibly want to know about all of the subject matter in this email. I find those types of messages are typically transmitted by the least productive members of any group I am involved with. These are the people who tend to fail upwards in it any organization because they work tirelessly at appearing to be productive with these smoke and mirror tactics.
My preference is to limit email correspondence to a single subject specifically addressed to those who are required for the discussion. State your intention to your addressees in the subject of the message and stick to it. Do not deviate from the subject matter of the message. Reserve unrelated thoughts for additional correspondence if your ‘PS’ is more than a single line it belongs in it’s own email.
If someone responds to my message attempting to hijack the conversion I update subject in my response so that it is clear the focus of the conversation has shifted. On occasion I’ve alerted an original sender with a separate note advising them that I am updating the subject to reflect the shift in conversation topic.
I understand that these tactics do little to prune the glut of email depravity but I find them essential for maintaining my mailbox as a searchable resource.
Related articles
- Is Email Dead? (rackspace.com)
- Email Spam Facts (rackspace.com)
- Facebook’s new Mobile Chatting/Messaging App (theyasartheory.wordpress.com)
