Does Email Have Teeth?

• The Short Answer:
• And Now for the Caveats.
• What's this strange punctuation?

Yes, it can. Beginners often think email is like regular mail only faster. Experienced email users know better. Email has more advantages than mere speed, but it can also bite if you're not careful. Take some advice from one who's been bitten a time or two. :-)

First, the good news. Email has a different heft than either phone or paper. It is not rude for me to reply to an email request with the single word "Done." And it is quite all right to thank me for a service by *not* sending me thank-you email, thereby saving me from reading and discarding yet-another-note. (Well, actually, an occasional thank you is just fine. But please don't make it a habit. <g>)

Those of you reading this article won't hear my voice or see my sardonic grin, so you may not notice my sarcasm. This also applies to email. *So be really careful with a message that needs body language or voice inflection for its full value.* Your recipient's inner voice will not be the same as your own.

I mean this both ways. A message that upsets you may not have been intended that way at all. So don't send off an angry reply to a note that offends you, at least not without careful consideration and taking some time to cool off first. If the note you find offensive was posted to a mailing list or Usenet/Netnews group and you feel that you must send an angry reply, do it privately; don't post it to the list. Sending angry replies to an email note is called "flaming." Sometimes private flaming is appropriate; public flaming is almost always in poor taste.

Also, you should be sure to use capitals, asterisks, smilies, or other indications when you need some body language, so you don't upset someone else unintentionally.

Please, use email to its best advantage. Think before you type, and reread before you send. You don't get this advantage on the phone, you know. :-(

Another abusable feature is that email can reach a wide audience quickly. Sometimes too wide and too quickly. It's probably obvious that you shouldn't splatter an announcement over a wide audience just because somebody *might* be interested. Email can quickly become junk mail, and recipients will learn to ignore your mailings, as well as berating you for your lack of consideration.

It is perhaps less obvious that you might send junk email by accident. Nonetheless, the "reply" button may target someone other than you intended, particularly if the original note came through a LISTSERV list. Be careful to check the To: field in your outgoing header. Trust me on this.

Also, of course, your recipient might forward your note to someone without your permission. This is often considered to be a breach of etiquette, but does happen out of ignorance. Bottom line on this one -- don't put something in a note that would be very embarrassing if it leaked out. Do *not* trust confidential information to email.

Misdirected mail is an occasional, but very definite, fact of electronic life. If you receive misdirected mail, be graceful about it, since it will happen to you sooner or later. But do let the sender know it happened.

Finally, it is not unheard of for someone to spoof a return address and to send mail as someone else. This is a serious violation of Computer Center policy, one that warrants account suspension. But it can happen.

Short of encryption, the mail system cannot guarantee the privacy of your message nor the authenticity of your correspondent. This is not usually a problem, but you should be aware of this limitation.

When used wisely, email is a wonderful tool, even for slow typists. Its speed, ease of use, ability to transform messages, and culture can change the way an organization does its business. For the better. But it is an addition to, not (yet) a full replacement for other means of communication. And come to think of it, there are still certain types of body language I'd rather experience in person. ;-)

Consider the basic smiley:   :-)

Tilt your head to the left, fuzz your eyeballs slightly, relax, and I'm sure you'll agree this is a face smiling at you from the screen. Smilies are quite commonly used to, well, smile electronically.

Other symbols you might see are <g> for grin, BTW for "by the way", IMHO for "in my humble opinion" (and the even more ironic, but perhaps in many cases more truthful IMNSHO -- "in my not-so-humble opinion"), and so on. Or you can *emphasize* a word with asterisks, and even:

SHOUT AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS

Who says email users aren't a fun-loving crowd? :-)

Comments are appreciated; send them to
Bob Goldstein, bobg@uic.edu