This is part 3 in an arc inspired by Sweetness' sending me "E-Mail Reply to All: 'Leave Me Alone'". The thrust of the post is that people are so overwhelmed with email they're shutting it off. In some cases they're shutting it off for a while (like I do periodically) and in other cases, well, forever.I've written in earlier entries in this arc that I can understand that desire.
The concept is "email bankruptcy". Part 1 dealt with Fred Wilson, who didn't start the idea but who gave it wings. Part 2 discussed how email bankruptcy is infecting the work force and can be a boon to productivity. Here we learn how people are alerting their correspondents of their bankruptcy.
Some people who don't want to go through the drastic-seeming measure of declaring total bankruptcy say they are trying to gently discourage the use of e-mail in their communications in favor of more personal calls or instant messages.
"I am reachable, just e-mail is not a good way to do it," said Sean Bonner, chief executive of a news blog network who has automatic responses set up on his work and personal accounts warning he doesn't check e-mail as often as he used to.
Even those who've chosen partial e-mail engagement say they continue to struggle with the question of whether or not to reply.
Stanford University technology professor Lawrence Lessig publicly declared e-mail bankruptcy a few years ago after being deluged by thousands of e-mails. "I eventually got to be so far behind that I was either going to spend all my time answering e-mails or I was going to do my job," he said.
Thereafter, Lessig's correspondents received e-mail equivalents of Dear John letters: "Dear person who sent me a yet-unanswered e-mail, he wrote, "I apologize, but I am declaring e-mail bankruptcy," he said, adding an apology for his lack of "cyber decency."
He eliminated about 90 percent of his e-mail traffic, but said he can't quite abandon it entirely. "The easiest strategy is just to ignore e-mail, but I just can't psychologically do that," Lessig said in an interview.
Does this mean the killer-ap of the internet is going away? What is the implication for social networking? So far the people referenced in this article are, um, mature in a demographic sense.
Other elements come into play, as well. Email allows people to distance themselves from direct contact with the individual their corresponding with. It creates a wall and walls are both good and not so good, depending on their purpose and use.
I do like that professor's "I may or may not get to your email" auto responder. You know, I think we have that capability on our system. Hmm...
(more to follow)
I'll be speaking at the Society for New Communications Research Annual Awards Gala Summit on 1-2 Nov 07 in Boston. Come on by and say hello.
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