Do you value electronic communication?

Subject: Do you value electronic communication?
From: GUEST,Bun
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 10:18 AM

I would appreciate some input here.
A lot of my business involves use of e-mail. If I do not reply to them,it seen as bad business
If my family e-mail I always reply fairly quickly - not wanting to risk the wrath of the big sister

I am perplexed as someone who means alot to me, who professes to have deep feelings for me, who thinks I one of the best things that has happened to them does not answer my e-mail. yet when I see them at least once a week I get the smutty remarks and the long loving looks.
Ah........perhaps I am paranoid,
Bun

Subject: RE: Do you value electronic communication?
From: Midchuck
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 10:28 AM

I am at my computer most of the day, and check e-mail every hour or two.

At times I've sent messages to people, that needed an immediate answer or action, and been puzzled because nothing happened. When I'd ask them, a day or two later, they'd reply, "Oh, I didn't get around to checking my mail yesterday."

My reaction was: "How could you possibly not check your mail all day?" Then I'd realize I was expecting other people to be compulsive about it just 'cause I was.

In business communications now, we have a choice of telephone, e-mail, fax, snailmail, or private messenger services - and none of them is foolproof.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Do you value electronic communication?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 10:31 AM

Call me Mr. Obvious but have you asked the person about this? Some people are very nonchalant about personal email. Some actively dislike it. Some see no point in replying to certain kinds of personal email.

Subject: RE: Do you value electronic communication?
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 10:38 AM

business is one thing,,,where quick response can be crucial.......but some view casual email as close to the same intrusion that telemarkters bring. I know a couple who use an answering machine to screen phone calls, and simply don't interrupt what they are doing to answer the phone......"IF" you have a sudden emergency that requires back & forth emails...or a airline ticket scheduling problem in order to plan a family vacation, then I imagine interest will pick up....but compulsive chatter just because it's there? Why?

Subject: RE: Do you value electronic communication?
From: GUEST,Bun
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 10:57 AM

I understand what you are saying about some personal messages. I would be mad to expect people to check their e-mail as frequently as I do.
This more a question of valuing a relationship. The person in question knows how much I look forward to getting their e-mails - it gives me a real lift - to what is a long long day. I think what the bottom line is that I feel their lack of communication may be indicative of lust rather than love.
Do you know --- I think I had to write that down for it to sink in. In fact, it makes a lot of sense.

In keeping with the thread, I find e-mail is a much better tool than fax or phone. Its informality works well in the comminication business, and I can honestly say that I have found many a kindred spirit through this medium(incuding the mudcat!)
Bun

Subject: RE: Do you value electronic communication?
From: paddymac
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 12:39 PM

Hmmm, the question begins to sound a bit like the ageless query: "Yes, but, will you still love me in the morning?" If that's the case, my suggestion would be to consider both words and actions. I imagine there have been volumes written on the topic, which likely can be condensed into the realization that the question is rarely as simple and straight-forward as it seems. Neither are the responses. Further into this minefield I dare not go.

Subject: RE: Do you value electronic communication?
From: Kim C
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 01:07 PM

I love e-mail. Love it, love it, love it. I figure e-mail is sort of like phone calls in that there are people who return calls promptly and others who don't; likewise some people return e-mail promptly and others don't.

I return communications as promptly as I can so I tend to get a little peevish with people who don't - but I realize that's just their way and it probably doesn't have anything to do with me. :)

Subject: RE: Do you value electronic communication?
From: Justa Picker
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 01:23 PM

E-mail is an essential tool in my work. (I'd almost be lost without it) but, it cannot replace the immediacy and personalized contact that the telephone continues to provide, and due to its nature, comments in e-mail are often subject to misinterpretation.

Subject: RE: Do you value electronic communication?
From: GUEST,Pining
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 01:32 PM

Bun - Boy, do I know how you feel! I just spent the past week agoninzing over why someone didn't respond to an e-mail. The relationship is too new for me to know what that signifies, but I do think you and I need to allow for the possibility that some people just don't like e-mail for personal communication. I know I hate using the phone, so I'm assuming similar situations are possible with e-mail.

So, just because someone isn't e-mailing you, it doesn't mean they're not thinking about you (if that was too many double negatives, the translation is assume the best until proved otherwise).

Subject: RE: Do you value electronic communication?
From: Amergin
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 01:45 PM

God, I have no idea how I got by without email....oh yeah....I read more books....

Subject: RE: Do you value electronic communication?
From: Pondering It All
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 03:42 PM

Yes, I value and use Email over any other form of communication. Though I do find it a bit annoying when a person expects a reply to every little joke mass sent. I always reply to personal Emails but usually ignore the jokes other than to read a few and discard the rest. TWC

Subject: Here's my two penn'orth!
From: Bernard
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 04:28 PM

I'm a person who logs on regularly, and automatically hits the 'reply' button on every personal email, saving the reply as a draft, and sending the reply as soon as I can.

Many of my friends, however, appear to log on very infrequently, and don't seem to realise that the person who sent the email would like some sort of reply.

Oddly, if I'd sent the message by snail-mail, they would either send a reply by return of post, or ring me.

My feeling is that most people haven't come around to the reality of email (or other Internet chat), and are missing out on the warmth and joy it can bring. This seems to apply particularly to people who use a computer at work which hasn't got Internet access, or access is limited.

In all seriousness, where else can you make so many new friends from all over the world, and at such small cost?

Some people still treat their computer as some sort of parlour game that they pull out of a cupboard, assemble, use, dismantle and put away again. Yet they don't treat the TV or Hifi like that. My computer is permanently set up (okay. I'm a bit obsessive - I have three of them set up, and networked!), and even has its own telephone line...

When I get up in the morning I check the doormat for mail, and turn on the computer before going into the kitchen to grab my bowl of cereal. I check my email whilst eating my cereal, reply to anything that seems urgent, and save non-urgent stuff as drafts until I get home in the evening.

Does this make me a bit odd, I wonder? I think not! Someone who cannot function in the morning without wrapping leaves in a piece of paper, shoving it in their mouth, setting fire to it and inhaling the fumes is considered normal by many!

It is more worrying, I think, if someone who always responds to your emails seems less keen to do so. That, in my experience, indicates that their interest lies elsewhere - a change in behaviour pattern which would be evident in other ways, too...

Subject: RE: Do you value electronic communication?
From: SINSULL
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 04:32 PM

I live on Outlook 9 hours a day and answer every email as it comes in. Have learned to ignore FAX and phone messages. 95% of my income is generated via email. Next question.

Subject: RE: Do you value electronic communication?
From: mousethief
Date: 30 Jan 01 - 04:47 PM

I met my wife over a BBS and wooed her by email. It worked. We've been married 3.5 years, and are still twitterpated with each other.

Yeah, I value electronic communication.

Alex

Subject: RE: Do you value electronic communication?
From: GUEST,Bun
Date: 31 Jan 01 - 03:41 AM

Many thanks for your comments.
I have just checked my e-mail, and I have 12 messages from friends - its a great feeling (not the one friend I mentioned earlier - their loss!)and 14 business messages. So I had better get working - but guess which ones I will look at first!
Bun

Subject: RE: Do you value electronic communication?
From: Bagpuss
Date: 31 Jan 01 - 04:19 AM

My best friend is someone I really only know from e-mail - have only met him in the flesh twice. Most of the time we both reply to emails really quickly, but we are both very forgiving of the other when we don't get around to it as quickly.

I dont really email with anyone I see regularly - which might make a difference. I use the internet to keep in touch with people at a distance, because Im crap at writing letters and remembering to phone people.

Bagpuss