Today, e mail is practically the center of our world. What would we do without the instant gratification of getting an e mail the moment its sent directly to our blackberry or inbox? I remember a time, a time that children today will never know of, a time when we actually sat down and wrote a letter. As it is commonly know now a days as snail mail. The slow old fashioned way of getting in touch with an old friend. Sitting down and putting pen to paper and writing an actual letter. These days are long gone for the most part, so I though for this experiment I'd ask someone who remembered these times as well. I asked my mom, dad, and my old pen pal, my cousin Jen.
My dad pretty much only goes on the computer to play snood, but on the rare occasion he dose go on line he doesn't have many e mails because he doesn't have an reason to give out his e mail address, other then an e mail here or there from field and stream about his subscription status, he doesn't get much mail, probably a couple a week. So for the most part e mail really doesn't affect my dad's life at all in either a positive or negative way.
For my mom she likes using her e mail to keep in touch with her friends that have moved away to California and to send funny pictures and jokes to her sisters. She likes using e mail to stay close to people that are far away but she also mentioned that it is the most impersonal way of going about it. At least on the phone you can hear the persons voice, not the case in an e mail. Another downfall my mom said what that she rarely goes on to check her mail so when she does she has hundreds to go through. There are so many that it gets overwhelming and frustrating, so she just starts deleting everything even though it may be important.
My cousin Jen lives in Connecticut so we use e mail every now and then to talk but she mostly uses her e mail for work. After just graduating from UCONN and now working for an insurance company she gets her own company e mail that her clients can reach her through. She says it is a very important tool to helping her stay on top of what her clients needs are and how to best serve them. She said she gets about 30 e mails a day although some are spam and junk mail, most of them are important in increasing her productivity.
All in all e mail is definitely a faster way to get in touch with someone but the trade of for that kind off speed is that you lose some of the closeness and the personal touch that a hand written letter or even a phone call has. However in this fast paced world we live in now a days, its not even a choice.
