Mary V. Connolly
Mathematics Department
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
(219) 284-4497
connolly@saintmarys.edu

Communication in today's world is critical, and anything which fosters quick, effective communication within a business or with the customers of the business should be very attractive. Why, then, is this imaginary advertisement a bit problematic?

We have the tool to solve all your communication problems! It will require only one-half hour to an hour each day of your time, but sometimes more. It is expensive. Things could go wrong and leave you unable to do your work for a while, but when it works, you will be connected 24 hours a day. Make sure your IT staff knows about it so they can plan for plenty of disk space. You will be able to store all your communication for later retrieval.

Somehow this "tool" of e-mail is here, whether or not we asked for it. The "only one-half hour to an hour each day" is probably conservative. We spend a great deal of time with our e-mail, and things do go wrong. One faculty member at Saint Mary's reported that she could not work without her e-mail, but that it had serious problems. Not the least of these problems was the message she received saying that the address was invalid each time she sent someone a message. The problem was that her addresses were in fact valid, and she ended up sending the same message multiple times. As she said, "You can't have e-mail that has its moments." What is this new form of communication which has invaded our homes and work places and demands an inordinate amount of our time?

Communication is not new. Perhaps we can gain some perspective by looking back a bit in history at some other forms of communication, namely letters, telegrams and telephone calls. Each new form of communication certainly changes social relationships and does not always develop as intended by those who originally developed it. Samuel Morse originally designed the telegraph for synchronous two-way communication between two people. This didn't prove to be practical, but the telegraph was ideal for many other uses. Prior to the telegraph, business relations were done through contacts among people who knew each other; with the telegraph, this was no longer necessary. (Baron, pp. 218-19) Alexander Graham Bell was a speech expert; for him, the telephone was less a tool for transmitting a message than a device for transmitting voices. (Baron, p. 220) The important thing to note here is that Bell intended more than just conveying a message; the tone of the conveyor could also be transmitted, making it a richer form of communication than the telegram. At first, the telephone was used for practical matters such as business and emergencies. After World War I however, it was used increasingly for social reasons, enabling people to maintain social ties with distant family and friends. This same evolution took place with e-mail. ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet, was not designed for exchanging personal messages. In the 1970s and 1980s, those who had access to e-mail were mostly faculty and/or researchers. It was not until the explosion of networked computing in the 1990s that the use of e-mail became ubiquitous. The reader might consider the date of his or her first use of e-mail; it was not that long ago. Not surprisingly, e-mail is gradually replacing the telephone and the traditional letter for two-person social discourse. (Baron, p. 227) An article published in the Wall Street Journal estimated that 4 trillion e-mails were sent in 1998 as opposed to 107 billion pieces of first class mail sent through the U. S. Postal Service.

But have we gone backwards from Bell's idea that communication involved more than just the message? Have we, in fact, reverted to very fast, very cheap telegrams? Consider how our space is affected by e-mail and what we are willing to disclose in an e-mail. E-mail messages are in no sense private; the current President of the United States has stopped sending e-mail to his daughters, knowing that all White House e-mail is archived. Nevertheless, when we write e-mail messages we do so in our own space. While it is hard to hear your phone ring and not answer it, it is easy to wait for a convenient time to respond to e-mail. The reader should ask himself/ herself whether he/she prefers to provide someone with a phone number or an e-mail address and why. However, that same privacy with e-mail does allow us to impinge on the privacy of others by initiating conversations with people we do not know. How invaded we feel when our e-mail is flooded with ads, for example. This quasi-anonymity of e-mail has another interesting result; research shows that the more anonymous one feels, the more one is willing to divulge on line. People are willing to make far more personal disclosures that they would with more visual cues (i.e. on the telephone or in person). (Baron, p. 233) We have to conclude that e-mail is certainly not the same as telephone calls, and telegrams never were as long or as numerous; they were too expensive. This brings us full circle to the original questions: What IS e-mail? Is it a form of speech which happens to be written or is it really a form of writing? It seems to be something of a cross-breed; a survey of typical messages would be enough to convince anyone that it is not formal writing. Just consider the abbreviations, smiley faces, etc. that are in use. However, from the social standpoint, it is writing, since those conversing are physically separated. We do, after all, have to type those messages, but often these are not edited. However, a message often reads as one would speak. The language is relatively informal; first and second person pronouns are common, as are contractions. (Baron, p. 251) Face-to-face speech it is not; the visual clues and tone of voice are missing. Therein lie some of the problems.

A recent campus controversy at Saint Mary's led to a flood of e-mail being sent to all members of the community. The president alone received 105 e-mail messages on the topic, some broadcast across the campus and some private. As the one of the vice-presidents reported, the messages certainly were passionate, but occasionally sharp-toned and lacking in the respect for another's opinion which one expects in an academic community. Interestingly, part of the debate became whether the e-mail forum was a proper place for the debate. That quasi-anonymity made it too easy for people to write things which they would not say in the same way in speaking face-to-face. The e-mail generated during the controversy was invasive and yet incomplete. As one faculty member pointed out, the problem is that e-mail can be sent immediately. One does not even have to pause to put it in an envelope and seal it. Although many of the messages violated good taste, none violated campus policies for use of e-mail. Policies, though necessary, are no guarantee that there will not be problems.

Perhaps the academy can learn some lessons from the business world. Net Daemons is a computer-consulting company in which 90% of the employees work at the clients' offices. E-mail is the company's primary method of communication. Jennifer Lawton, of Net Daemons, considers the best uses for e-mail to be screening information, confirming and organizing information, bringing work on the road, keeping track of "to-dos" and calls, and keeping assistants up-to-date. She also uses it to stay in contact with family and to send little personal messages. However, she is quick to point out that e-mail is not an all-purpose communicator. Arguments in e-mail (the campus controversy comes to mind!) and abusive language should always be avoided. She cautions that there are some rules which should be followed, including using appropriate subject lines, being considerate of the recipient's time and honest about your response time. She warns that some things should be done in person or on the telephone. A final warning: "You could read and send e-mail all day long and never accomplish your true goals. Resist e-mail's temptation." (Lawton)

Jim McCann, founder of 1-800-FLOWERS, has some additional advice. When the company first began, it worked with a toll free telephone number, which, at that time, was cutting edge. Now the company operates with a networked collection of florists. Supplies, sales and exchange orders with other shops on the network are processed in a fraction of the time it used to take to write everything down and make a phone call. The company started using e-mail in the early 1990s and found that its use created more time for internal interaction. McCann points out, however, that it is not a replacement for real-time, real-world interaction; it is only a supplement. As president of the company, he gets hundreds of messages daily; he gets copied on almost everything. His secretary has to sort his in-box. In a sense this is a problem he has deliberately created, since he has made his mailbox available to everyone at the company. He feels that the success of the company is due in large measure to the fact that he interacts personally with employees, customers, vendors and others, and he does not want to isolate himself. At the same time he has made sure that his employees know that he much prefers meeting in person. E-mail complements face-to-face discussions, but does not replace them. "Nothing beats a five-minute, face-to-face update." (McCann)

Both Lawton and McCann deal with an enormous amount of e-mail. How can we deal with this flood? Bradley Feld, writing in "Managing Your E-mail: An Entrepreneur's Checklist," offers some advice. He is an entrepreneur who runs several companies with no physical headquarters. He thought it was neat to get so much mail five years ago; three years ago he thought it was annoying. Then it dawned on him that he had to deal with it. He first suggestion is to develop an e-mail rhythm, and stick to it. Do you deal with it first thing in the morning? What is your standard response time? If others get used to your rhythm, there will be fewer problems. There is real advice here for academic communities, where the students and faculty sometimes work at very different times of the day. Do we really want students to expect that an e-mail posted at 3 a.m. will be answered before 9 a.m.? If students understand how and when we will respond, their expectations will match our ability to deliver. If we do not explain how we deal with e-mail, students are likely to expect that we will be available almost on a 24/7 basis. Feld also advises that we never touch an e-mail more than twice. If it does not require immediate attention, deal with it in sequential date and time order the next time you are free. He offers a work of caution about the use of filters and folders; e-mail that ends up in folders is easily forgotten. Responses should be kept short; this is the nature of this form of communication. Unless you really want to continue e-mail conversations forever, respond only when necessary. Most importantly, when e-mail gets out of control, pick up the phone. E-mail is a tool, but not a replacement, for communication. (Feld)

Students send their e-mails in a very comfortable environment. Most of their messages are personal; they are able to send them using campus equipment at any time of the day or night. In many ways, we do not prepare them for life after graduation. Many companies have policies which restrict the use of e-mail; those personal messages may well have to be sent from home, with fees going to an Internet provider. However, the use of e-mail has grown so rapidly that, even in this comfortable environment, students are getting exposed to some of the problems. Unwanted messages are not uncommon. Students at Saint Mary's are so overwhelmed with messages sent about events on campus that many delete these without even reading them. The Vice President for Student Affairs recently felt the need to respond to pleas from students, faculty and staff that the flood be controlled. In an e-mail with subject heading "Mass E-mailing," she urged everyone to be judicious in the use of e-mail. She asked that clear subject lines be used and that advertising and lost and found notices be handled in other ways.

What then do we conclude? E-mail is neither speech nor formal writing, but something in between. It is so easy for people to send messages that we can frequently be flooded with e-mail. Although e-mail has not quite the same urgency as a phone call, the sender may well have the same expectations in terms of response time. All of this suggests that we must plan ahead for a reasonable way to handle the flood, and we must establish a personal policy for our response time. If those who send us the most urgent messages (perhaps our students sending those messages at 3 a.m.) understand that we routinely check our e-mail only at certain times of the day, their expectations will be set according to our plan, not their plan. E-mail is here; it is not likely to go away, but we can control the way in which it invades our lives.

Bibliography

Baron, Naomi S. (2000) Alphabet to Email: How Written English Evolved and Where It's Heading. New York: Routledge.

Feld, Bradley. (1998, October) Managing Your E-mail: An Entrepreneur's Checklist.
Entreworld.org [On-Line], http://entreworld.lycos.com/Perspectives.cfm?ArticleID = 52.

Lawton, Jennifer. (1998, October) E-mail is a Wonderful Thing! Entreworld.org [On-Line], http://entreworld.lycos.com/Perspectives.cfm?ArticleID = 53.

McCann, Jim. (1995, October) The Perils and Pitfalls of E-mail: Finding a Middle Ground. Entreworld.org [On-Line], http://entreworld.lycos.com/Perspectives.cfm?ArticleID = 54.