Email

[Forsher]

Let's talk about email for a bit. Basically, what are your thoughts?

I have several basic structures for this OP. And a whole bunch of cartoons in spoilers inside the big spoiler.

• do you like answering it?
• are you Inbox Zero?
• do you take forever to write emails?
• do you feel compelled to answer emails?
• do you feel like emails are an inefficient substitute for alternatives?

My commentary (with appropriate and, hopefully, amusing cartoons) is included in the big spoiler.

Are you on the xkcd side of things?



I'm not... I like answering and receiving emails... I don't think I could handle a situation where I couldn't look at emails all hours. On the other hand, I have, in the scheme of things, low email volumes to deal with.

How about PhD Comics?



Technically my university email... the one I pay most attention to... is at 0. In practice it's at 181 because that's the number of emails I had unread before I decided to do something about it. That is, excluding a few folders which just receive emails automatically (Piazza, mostly). My "human name" email is similar, except I've "tared" it to an emotionally significant number.

On the other hand... the email address I used when I joined NS is now at like... 999+ with a whole bunch of big folders as well. I check that like every three months now, though. My Runescape email (gmail, technically) has got to 240+ since I stopped checking it properly. I should do something about that one... a couple of things I still practically use that for.

(See also.)

But what about writing emails? Are you the Professor or the Student?



I'm the student. Literally I am a student but that's a coincidence. Even when I'm emailing other students I often have this problem. I hate writing emails to lecturers.

What about email addiction?



I like checking my email. I might not so much if I got more. But I'm a bit like this.

How about the actual usefulness of emails? Perhaps as manifest in synchronous versus asynchronous communication? (I don't really have a cartoon for this point, sorry. Based on my 1am reading of the article, the point is that asynchronous communication like email is, despite common sense intuition, less efficient than synchronous communication. The cartoon I do have is kinda saying the opposite?)



I've done a lot more group work than usual this year and I have to say synchronous communication is the way to go. The main group from this semester was obsessed with email and it just... didn't really work. I wonder if the reason we were so reliant on email was the average age of my fellows because we quite happily and very successfully used Google Chat last semester in another (younger) group. Of course we had face time too... for both groups, it's just that the digital Google Chat meetings really seem pretty much as effective as the IRL ones.

tl;dr -- on the whole I'm in favour of emails, but they're not useful for certain kinds of task

Now, obviously, I think there's a digital natives angle to take with email. I mean, I'm 24 or so and we had school emails in college (and obviously, if you read the spoilered stuff uni too) and I imagine younger people here have used them more systematically at school (I don't remember doing much with my school email except for emailing files). A lot of commentary and expectations which are framed from a business POV (like a Dilbert cartoon) might not be seen the same way by an audience with different life experiences. But it's late/very early so I'll go no further with this thought.

So, what say ye, NSG? Are you pro-mail? or anti-mail? Physical Letters or bust?

[Thermodolia]

I really don’t give a shit about email. I’ve never really had to use it for anything and if I do use it it’s because I know something is coming in.

As of last count I think I have somewhere around 6,000+ unread emails.

[The Blaatschapen]

Most of my emails are from/to companies. They tend to contain my reservation details for hotels, flights, trains, etc. I do not need to react to any of that, unless I have questions, just have it available on my mobile.

Individuals who contact me personally tend to use a plethora of messenger apps.

Or NationStates Telegram.

Edit: The inbox is full, but everything is read (well, not the social/promotions tabs, thanks gmail). I have some emails going straight to folders. Marked and read too, just for archiving purposes.

[Alvecia]

I have two email account, not including my work email.

One I use as a throwaway for when I have to enter an email for something, but I know it's gonna get spammed to shit.
That one I haven't touched in ages. I imagine there are several Nigerian princes waiting on a reply by this point.

The other is my "professional" one, which I use for important stuff like banking, insurance, etc. Mostly stuff that involves money. There are a lot of receipts and contract documents in there.

It's useful for sorting out stuff I actually want/need to keep.


Work is another matter. Get about 30 emails a day, all of them important, and that's relatively low compared to others in my team.

[Heloin]

The only time I check my email is when a website demands I check it for authentication purposes. I think I'm sitting on somewhere between 4-5,000 unread emails.

I check but don't really do anything with my work email since the only thing I get from that is schedules and demands that I show up to a meeting.

[The Free Joy State]

I have two email accounts (and a throwaway I used to use to sign up to things). One is my everyday email account, the other is my personal account that only goes to a some people and government-related stuff.

I check my emails infrequently (unless I'm expecting something); when people email out of the blue, most of my replies begin with an apology for my late reply. As for whether I enjoy answering it... it depends on who emailed me.

I periodically clear a bunch of old emails. My everyday account has something like 600 unread messages; my personal has about 10... unless I've got new ones; I should check it at some point.

[The Blaatschapen]

Btw, best romcom here is clearly Eurotrip!

[Page]

• do you like answering it?
• are you Inbox Zero?
• do you take forever to write emails?
• do you feel compelled to answer emails?
• do you feel like emails are an inefficient substitute for alternatives?

- I don't really get many emails that require answers, most of my emails involve things I've bought, notifications, or bullshit I don't care about that I'm too lazy to block.

- I am obsessively inbox zero. I open or delete everything as soon as it arrives.

- I can write well very quickly most of the time.

People I actually know, I talk to on Facebook.

[Lost Memories]

Good to see having multiple mail addresses is common(aside the workplace ones), i usually get weird looks when i explain why that's a necessity.

are you Inbox Zero?

I'm managing that on my throwaway account, blacklisting spam addresses is the way.

In the same boat for checking the mail only when expecting something, which regularly makes me miss and reply late to those mails i wasn't expecting..

[Alvecia]

• do you like answering it?
• are you Inbox Zero?
• do you take forever to write emails?
• do you feel compelled to answer emails?
• do you feel like emails are an inefficient substitute for alternatives?

- I am obsessively inbox zero. I open or delete everything as soon as it arrives.

I'm the same for my work email, but that's probably because I have it open on one of my screens all day. so having the little numbers stick around makes me itch.

Easier to ignore my personal ones.

[Ethel mermania]

For work, I live and die by email. If I dont have something no work gets done.

I have 3 other emails, one is a throwaway for registering on websites. The other two I wind up answering. I check these two a couple times a week, more often if I am in the middle of an email conversation.

[Pax Nerdvana]

My personal email is at 0, my email that I use to sign up for things is at I don't how many hundreds of unread emails because I almost never check it, and when I do, I don't actually delete or read anything. My other email is at something like 200, and I check it slightly more often.

[Agarntrop]

email? that's so 90s

[Luziyca]

I have three emails: I check my university emails at least a few times a week, I have my email with my internet provider which is basically becoming a dumping ground for spam, and then there's my Gmail account which is ignored except for a few things.

[Cekoviu]

I'm constantly using email to schedule meetings and request services and/or items. I couldn't survive without it.

[Czechostan]

I love penpaling, so I communicate with email quite a bit. Plus I can give the subject a goofy name. My thumbs get sore too quickly when I am typing long messages on the phone, but if I'm texting a friend a quick message, it's fine.

[The Archregimancy]

I'm old enough that I still send e-mails, not emails.

I'll never drop that hyphen, dammit.

[Major-Tom]

My inbox is somewhere around 10,000 emails at the moment. I check my email several times a day, always punctual with replying, unless it’s meaningless spam or some survey. But generally I have to send out a dozen or so emails per day.

[Geneviev]

I only use email to get my music if it isn't on paper yet. So I don't really use it, and I very rarely check it.

[Nimzonia]

• do you like answering it?
• are you Inbox Zero?
• do you take forever to write emails?
• do you feel compelled to answer emails?
• do you feel like emails are an inefficient substitute for alternatives?

• No
• Yes
• Yes
• Only if they're from someone I like
• I don't know or care

I refuse to use social media, and I don't like any form of communication that requires me to make an immediate response.

[Sovaal]

For some reason emails just make me nervous. Not like I break out into sweats, but I just tend to worry over missing anything gun I oritant I guess. Same with regular mail.

[Costa Hermosa]

Hahahaha!

I have over 4000 emails that I long haven't bothered to clean my inbox

[Bear Stearns]

I live on Microsoft Outlook - I probably get like 200 emails a day and I use the calendar function to plan my day-to-day.

[Alanis Star]

I have four emails, across Hotmail/Outlook and Gmail. Just happens to be secondary accounts that accumulated because of some stuff, or because I have to sign up for an account just to use my phone fully.

In hindsight, I should have used my primary account for important stuff, now it's spammed with thousands of mails.

I used to use a planner/calendar but eventually.... It just didn't stick. I'm bad with planning, so it was more of my fault, not of a software.

[Bombadil]

do you like answering it? - doesn't really bother me
are you Inbox Zero? - yes, I hate any outstanding notifications on my phone
do you take forever to write emails? - depends
do you feel compelled to answer emails? - not at all
do you feel like emails are an inefficient substitute for alternatives? - perhaps but they're kind of standard for work

I actually have my namesurname@ hotmail and gmail, I've actually had emails asking if they could buy my email address. It also leads to receiving many emails meant for namesakes. Having said that I very rarely use my personal email accounts anymore and mostly it's just spam.

For work though it's kind of standard.