I didn’t get into email until early 1996. When I discovered it, I couldn’t wait to find people who had it to write letters to. I’d always been a letter writer. I was the one who would find people from college and get caught up with them and keep them up to date on what was happening with everyone else. Initially it was on typewriters, then computer word processing programs before the modern Windows, and finally the good stuff, mainly Microsoft Word.
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These days, I couldn’t tell you the last time I wrote a personal email to one person. I say it that way because I’m sometimes known to write a long compilation email and send it out to a whole bunch of people. And, as it figures, if I get anything back at all, it’s often a one or two line response.
What happened to the revolution that we were supposed to have in more and better communications because of email? Is it all time related? I ask that because I used to get to every email I got very quickly, and now sometimes it’s 2 or 3 days before I get to an email, even a business email. That feels so unlike me, but then there’s just so much email that goes along with all the research I do for all the writing I do. I’m always wondering if that excuse is good enough for neglecting friends that probably aren’t going to respond in kind. Thank goodness for my friend Kelvin; I think he is the only person I actually correspond with on at least a weekly basis, if not more often, and if history means anything, he was actually my first true email friend back in 1999 as the first person who actually told me he was going to send me an email and then did. Of course, I don’t expect him to see this so maybe I should say something bad about him and see if word gets out. 😉
So, there’s the question; do you send personal email to your friends or family, and if so how often? Enjoy your Sunday!
