In the Stone Age of Internet technology, roughly seven to 10 years ago, computer users would reel off e-mail replies as fast as their fingers could tap-dance across keyboards. The daunting task often devoured the evening until finally the last e-mail was sent or exhaustion took over.
But today, nearly two-thirds of experienced computer users delay returning personal e-mails from one to three days. Sometimes, it’s even up to a week, and all, in perhaps an ultimately vain attempt, to reclaim their personal lives. Meanwhile, e-mail novices usually constantly fire back replies.
That’s just one nugget panned from a burgeoning body of research centering on e-mail and how it is rewriting the narrative of everyday life.
What’s evident is that e-mail is transforming personal communication in the same way letter writing and the telephone once did, not to mention changing our behavior in virtually every aspect of our lives, from business to romance, political to personal.
Jeffrey Cole, director of the University of Southern California’s Center for the Digital Future, likens the impact of the Internet and e-mail to the TV and predicts they could someday rival that of the printing press.
Research shows e-mail is off to a promising start–it’s the No. 1 online activity and is used by more than 70 percent of all Americans, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a non-profit initiative.
A second wave of research is delving deeper into the psychology of e-mail. Closer attention is being paid to what e-mail does to personality. Staring at a computer screen, usually alone, can lower inhibitions, argues psychologist Patricia Wallace. As such, e-mail users are often more aggressive, even more intimate, than they should be.
E-mails can easily be misinterpreted–both at work and in personal situations–even if the language is precise. Office e-mails have become so problematic that most workplaces are now legally obligated to monitor them, despite protests from privacy organizations.
“No matter how many times people are warned e-mail is archived and that they could be sued for it later in a trial, they still say things in them they would never say face-to-face or in a meeting,” Wallace said. “It’s just so easy to click and send.”
Much of the confusion associated with personal e-mail is simply the result of not having an established etiquette on the frontier of cyberspace.
Estimates are it will take years to resolve basic questions such as: How often should e-mail be checked, how quickly should a reply be sent, what is appropriate material for an e-mail, and what are ethical uses of cc-ing?
Not surprisingly, e-mail’s penchant for promoting errors or faux pas has led to countermeasures to prevent them.
One is a software program called Eudora, whose MoodWatch feature flags an e-mail sender (and receiver) with one, two or three chili peppers when potentially inappropriate words or phrases are being used.
For instance, trying to e-mail a message with “scum sucking loser” in it would trigger a “Mood Warning!” box with two chili peppers to pop up on your screen.
Yes, you can still send the message, but you’ve been warned.
Chicago numbers
Chicago is the ninth-ranked city of residents most addicted to e-mail, according to a recent AOL-Opinion Research Corp. survey. The survey asked 4,012 people over the age of 18 in 20 U.S. cities–200 in the Chicago area–about their e-mail habits. Here are some local results:
– Residents check their in-boxes an average of four times a day.
– 36 percent check it first thing in the morning.
– 19 percent check it right when they get home from work.
– 16 percent check it right after dinner.
– 41 percent have checked their e-mail in the middle of the night.
They check e-mail anywhere and everywhere:
– 24 percent check in bed in their pajamas.
– 14 percent check in class.
– 5 percent check at the beach or pool.
– 5 percent check in the bathroom.
– 64 percent check personal e-mail at work. Only 19 percent feel guilty about it.
E-mailing frenzy
On an average day, about 77 million
American adults go online. E-mail and instant messaging are the most popular activities. Some other e-mail numbers:
Checking In
– 62 percent of all e-mail users say they check their e-mail once a day.
– 33 percent of e-mail users say they check e-mail several times a day, or every hour or more.
Response Time
Comparing new users online less than a year versus experienced users with seven or more years:
– 30 percent of new users respond to e-mails as soon as possible compared with 14.7 percent of experienced users.
– 18.9 percent of new users respond in two or three days compared with 30.8 percent of experienced users.
Multiple Uses
– 79 percent of Internet users who say they communicate with friends and family use the Internet for such communications.
– 52 percent of Internet users exchanging cards and invitations go online to do so.
– 46 percent of Internet users who say they plan meetings and arrange personal meetings use the Internet for such purposes.
Sources: “The Digital Future Report,” USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future (2004); “The Internet and Daily Life,” Pew Internet & American Life Project (2004)
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Edited by Curt Wagner (cwwagner@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
