You've Got Mail...

I found this short comic strip, and realized how true it is with our generation. I remember back to when I was younger and first got them. I thought it was so exciting when I got e-mails, and now years later in college, the highlight of my semester is when I get letters in the mail.  It is crazy how different many of us feel about getting letters in the mail compared to years ago. E-mail seems to have taken over our lives. I know for me, one of the first things I do in the morning is check all three of my e-mails. It is so common to check e-mails, and less common to receive/send letters because our world is so fast paced now. With the fast paced communication we have now, how has etiquette been effected? I think that etiquette should be upheld at least somewhat in everyday interactions, but instead has fallen to the wayside.

For me, whenever I am sending an e-mail a professor or family member, I always start with 'Dear' and usually sign it 'Sincerely'. A response is either written back the same way, or without the 'Dear' and 'Sincerely' (or other closing remark). Now I don't think too much of this, but that could be seen as etiquette lost. E-mails can be written much faster compared to letters. In the radio program I listened to, Virginia Woolf's words of advice was 'never write carelessly and count to at least 10 before sending an e-mail. Her words of advice are very important for this time in our lives. E-mails can be sent and received in a matter of minutes, even seconds. When a person responds, the reader of the e-mail may interpret the e-mail in a negative way, when the responder had no intention of coming off as negative. This has happened numerous times throughout my lifetime, and to friends of mine. This is why whenever responding to an e-mail, it is good to write out all of our feelings, then 'count to 10,' reread it, and see if those words were actually the words that we meant to write. Whenever writing letters, we thought more about etiquette and what we wrote much more thoroughly than we do now (in my opinion). I believe this is so because of what Lisa Jardine said in the radio program; that letters take a longer time to receive, so when writing them, we have to be more detailed in our thoughts and take extra care when writing it. Yes, people do expect responses fast, but I think it would be more beneficial to put more thought into our e-mails than have rushed ones that could cause more problems in the long run.


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