an internal conflict
i swear, emails are simultaneously the worst and best means of communication.
the good
some of the most fond memories i hold are directly linked to email. i can distinctly remember talking to friends from my yahoo email address before finally making the switch to imessage, and boy did those times hit different!! lots of unironic XDs are probably buried somewhere in the cloud, that’s for sure.
with all this instant communication we got going on now, life seems pretty darn slow. i hate having to respond right away, but i still get worried when i message someone else and they don’t respond within an hour. which is literally something I DO.
email, on the other hand.. it takes a while to draft up the perfect reply. people don’t really care if you don’t respond immediately, because what can you really expect from email?? it just all feels more meaningful. more thought-out. i’ve had some of the best conversations of my life over email. and while that might just speak to how sad of an individual i might be, i wholeheartedly would like to accept it as evidence of how great email truly is.
the bad
WHY IS IT SO FORMAL?? i actually have to use proper punctuation and capitalization, which is honestly not true to who i am. SO if i end up not using proper punctuation or capitalization, it’s either when i really don’t care OR when i really respect the other person. there’s NO in between.
another annoying thing about email is THE EMAIL TRACKERS PEOPLE PUT ON THEIR EMAILS. 1 i think i used them at some point, so i really am a hypocrite, but WHY DO PEOPLE STILL USE THEM!! i get that you want a timely response, but c’mon. i already get tracked enough, thank you very much!! just wait patiently like a normal person and if you don’t get a response, just send a follow up email!! simple as that.
in conclusion
like rousseau or some guy said about human nature, email is inherently good. so let’s get back to basics!! thanks <3
update: made a sort of site explaining more of my thoughts on email. and a call to Make It Fun!!!!!!! check it out if you want. or don’t!!
footnotes:
this was first planted on tuesday, april 20th 2021.
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if you’re using them for analytics cuz it’s your job, that’s fine, i guess. i’m acting like a whole gatekeeper out here, damn. if you genuinely enjoy using email trackers, you do you, i guess?? ↩