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- Her national affairs column appears every Tuesday exclusively at cathysorbo.com.
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| Are we overly attached to email? |
| Posted: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 |
Sometimes I need to remind myself to look beyond the negative and frightening elements of life (unending war, environmental crisis, discontinued lipstick shades) and appreciate the bounty of life's pleasurables (wine in a box, mini lava lamp keychains, miso soup, hot water bottles). Of the many wondrous advances in communication, electronic mail has got to be without a doubt my favorite technological innovation. With it, I have managed all aspects of my business. I send invoices, submit columns to my editor, negotiate performance contracts, send photos and press kits to club bookers -- all these tasks are accomplished handily with email.
Home management has been positively affected by email as well. Many a time the husband has been out and about, and I've been able to send him a tidy, legible grocery list with no spelling errors.
And then there is the communication for pleasure aspect of email. It's been comforting to be able to send a casual two or three-line email message to a friend in South Africa, London, New York or Los Angeles while my tea is steeping.
"Thinking of you ... hope you are well. "
I once bcc'd that very message to 26 far-away friends. I call it my 3-second form letter. All truth, no fluff.
Of course we are all too familiar with the annoyances that come with the conveniences of email, namely spam. No, I do not need cheap meds. No, I do not want to be a secret shopper, and no I do not want the degree that I deserve. More annoying are those awful chain-letter emails sent from friends, bored to tears at work:
"Send this letter to 10 of your best friends within 5 minutes or your nipples will fall off."
Uff.
My age being what it is, I have also lived on the other side of the communication fence. In the 1980's, my husband (then my boyfriend) lived in London while I lived in San Francisco. We communicated by letter and postcard, with the occasional precious phone call thrown in every couple of weeks.
If you have ever relied upon letters and postcards as your primary means of communicating with a loved one, you know how orgasmic it is to get that piece of mail. To look at their handwriting is the next best thing to looking into their eyes. To carry the letter with you at all times is almost as good as holding their hand. Each piece of mail sent and received is the assembling of the relationship, built on the written word and brokered by the blessed mail carrier.
Do people under 60-years old even write physical letters anymore? I wondered about this today when I heard of yet another U.S. postage rate increase. I'm thinking the postal service has got to be hurting with the widespread use of electronic mail.
Although stamps are becoming more and more graphically attractive, I do miss licking them. Also, I feel it's a terrible waste to put a super-cool vintage Indian motorcycle stamp on a crappy old health insurance payment.
I would love it if the postal service provided unappealing graphic imagery on stamps for use on bills. Landfills from around the world. Nick Nolte's mug shot. The rotting gums of methamphetamine addicts. These stamps might be just the thing to get me to cancel my electronic bill paying and start paying all my bills the old-fashioned way.
Yes. I want scary stamps that I can lick. Until then, though, I will be sending, attaching and bcc'ing along with the rest of the modern world.
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