Blackberry Theory of Email Apathy
The Germ Theory of Disease saved billions of lives from early deaths. It identified a root cause, as well as solutions, to the population-threatening problems of contagious diseases.
BlackBerry
Today, email apathy plagues the workforce. Whenever you send someone an email and he or she never replies to you, realize that you have been slashed by the sharp sickle of email apathy. Recently, I have noticed an upward trend of email apathy from business colleagues and others. After each click of the Send button, I think, “is my message going to a person or a black hole?”
The simpleton would argue that the large increase in the amount of both real email and spam makes it very difficult for someone to respond quickly even to legitimate emails. A busy person loses even important emails among the piles of clutter in his inbox. Certainly, the amount of email plays a factor, in the same way that stress plays a factor in exacerbating symptoms of a disease.
Blackberry Theory of Email Apathy
I hypothesize that the recent boom in handheld email devices, embodied in the Blackberry, iPhone, and other such tools, cause much email apathy. But by what process?
Nominally, the Blackberry intends to improve efficiency of communication by instantaneously notifying you of a new email as soon as the sender clicks “Send.” In fact, the recipient does feel the Blackberry gently vibrate with every incoming email, but he lacks increased communication. In practice, the Blackberry owner skims the email on a tiny screen, understanding very little of the intended meaning. If the email requires urgent action, at best the sender receives a curt reply tapped out awkwardly on a tiny keyboard by two fat thumbs.
Very often, the Blackberry user mentally notes to himself that he should reply to or act on the email at some point soon in the future, and then he forgets. The sender receives notification that the Blackberry user even received the email. Communication informational content quickly approaches zero.
How do we cure Email Apathy with knowledge of the Blackberry Theory? Proper Getting Things Done process. Perhaps non-instantaneous email triaging. Who knows. Just please reply to my email.
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