thinking about e-mail

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I was reading the Slashdot thread, "In The US, Email Is Only For Old People", pointing to a Slate article which I did not bother reading. It's so cliché, but sometimes I am only interested in the Insightful/Interesting Slashdot posts and not the front page post's link. Anyway, the whole idea is such bosh, e-mail has been around for ages and is not going to die any time soon. Heck, writing letters has pretty much been since writing has been. Unless we devise a new way of communicating ideas and thoughts, a way to form, store and pass them conveniently to others, letters and their electronic equivalents will be around.

Sure, spam has tainted e-mail to some extent, and I wish nothing but the most gruesome ends for those who would profit by it.... but again, that's a technology thing which can be worked around.

It did make me think of my own e-mail usage -- personal e-mail has gone WAY down. I remember actually taking the time to compose thoughtful e-mails, generally to people who were on different co-op work/study terms than myself. Full, complete letters with introductions and signatures and all that jazz. Of course, what killed it was this very website, this journal, this blog, this webjo. Well, that's what marked the beginning of its decline, I think. It is interesting to ponder how it's come to be that I hardly take any time when writing e-mails anymore. Perhaps there really is nothing going on up _there_, you know? I certainly feel that tomorrow is surrounded by an impenetrable cloud.

Is that really it though? Perhaps it is, perhaps it is. I certainly feel like I have nothing to say!

Again, poppycock. I have lots to say but it's become so internalized that there is no proper form for it outside my head. Suffice to say that there's this huge CENSORED-type sticker over most of the thoughts running about, and nary a peek is available.

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