The Tyranny of E-mail
Page 21
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book would not exist were it not for the gentle, congenial presence of Colin Robinson, who drew the topic out of me over lunch, thereby proving that face-to-face meetings can be vastly more productive than e-mail ping-pong. His wit and encouragement and sharp edits greatly improved the writing, and I will be forever grateful to him for leading me to believe I could even write a book in the first place.
A work of nonfiction always rests upon the work of writers who have come before, and my debts in this case are substantial. I am not a neuroscientist or computer specialist, but the science and technology reporters of The New York Times, whose work I quote and refer to throughout the book, dating back to the nineteenth century, and particularly Katie Hafner, were illuminating and pointed me in many fruitful directions.
Early on in the writing of this book, conversations with Lawrence Joseph clarified my thinking, and I am grateful to him for his synthetic intelligence and for pointing me to Stephen Kern’s tremendous The Culture of Time and Space, 1880–1918. I was also motivated early on by the work of Tom Standage, Clark Blaise, Naomi S. Baron, and Don Paterson. I was particularly moved by Ayse and Yasar Kemal, who reminded me of the sensuous purpose of creating an artifact.
I am grateful to Scribner for having such a committed team of optimists standing behind a first book. Thank you to Susan Moldow and Nan Graham for their friendship, good company, and determination to get this right. Brant Rumble has been as patient and steady-handed an editor as I could ever hope for, and I am very grateful for his stewardship. Thank you as well to Kate Bittman for humor and belief.
Thank you, Sarah Burnes, for seeing the potential in this book and for encouraging me to take the long view, for being so constantly unflappable, and for chipping in at all the right moments. Thank you, too, Alison Cohen, Stephanie Cabot, and David Gernert. In London I would take to the field with Arabella and Abner Stein any day.
Thank you to Sigrid Rausing and Eric Abraham for generously giving me time out of the office to publish this book, and thank you to the staff of Granta magazine, in particular Ellah Allfrey, Liz Jobey, Simon Willis, Roy Robins, Patrick Ryan, and Emily Greenhouse, for putting up with my absence.
Thank you, Richard and Raine
Hermsdorf, for storing my library all those years and keeping my office free; Leslie, for getting me to quit.
I perhaps may never have written this book were it not for the love and support of my family; my father, who spent a good part of ten years following me around the streets of Carmichael with a car full of newspapers, showing me how not to quit. Thank you, Andy, for good cheer and your example; to Tim for strength and brilliance; and especially my mother, whom I dearly wish could read this and know it is for her.
Finally, I have to thank the biggest e-mail crank of them all, this book’s muse and sternest devotee, who has embraced earnestness in the face of Englishness, and disorder to a point. I am working on the latter. In the meantime, for you I am most grateful of all.
INDEX
addiction to e-mail, 16, 133, 134-39, 165
address, 24-25, 29-30, 92, 143-44, 146, 147
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), 11, 91, 132
advertising, 11-12, 55-58, 94, 168, 174. See also spam
American colonies, 29-30, 31, 33, 35
“Americanitis,” 78
ancient civilizations, mail in, 24-28
anonymity, 49-50, 146, 150, 151
anxiety, 19-20, 76-80, 133
AOL (America Online), 101, 124, 125, 126, 135
ARPANET, 86-92, 118, 120, 121, 132, 186
@ symbol, 20, 92
AT&T, 91
attention, 139-43, 177, 196, 198-99
Baker, Nicholson, 154, 208-9
Bamford, James, 129, 130
Baran, Paul, 88-91, 118
Baron, Naomi, 31, 107
Bazerman, Charles, 28
BlackBerry, 79, 101-2, 103, 129, 134-36, 137-38, 164, 165, 178
Block, Jerald, 138-39
blogs, 110, 149, 151-52, 156, 162-63, 174, 176, 210
books, availability of, 31
botnets, 122-23, 126, 127
brain, 11, 142-43, 153, 155, 189, 195, 197, 198
browsers, 93
burnout, 161, 196, 210
Bush, George W., 4, 129-30, 182-83
business
expectations of, 161-62
telegraph as mode of
communication for, 77-78
See also employees; employers; work
business letters, 33
Butterfield, John, 36-38
CAN-SPAM Act (2003), 126
Canada, digital divide in, 186
Canter, Laurence, 121-22
Carr, Nicholas, 142, 176-77
catalogs, 57
Catholic Church, message system of, 28
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 50-51
change, movement as metaphor for, 133
childhood, and letter writing, 32-33
Cisco, research by, 7, 107
Civil War, 68, 70-71
Cixous, Hélène, 25, 181
Clinton, Bill, 182, 184
Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform, U.S.
House, 182
communication modes of, 2-3
one-to-one, 98
speed of, 3, 12-13, 20-21, 67-68
technologies as affecting, 64-65
writing as means of, 146-47
See also face-to-face communication; specific type of communication
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), 130
computers, 13, 21, 93, 94, 95, 102, 145, 180, 189. See also ARPANET
Congress, U.S., 36, 69, 86, 181, 182
consciousness, 102-4
consumers, 200-201
context, 166, 195, 202-3
conversations, 206, 207. See also face-to-face communication
crime, 48-51, 117. See also hackers; phishing; privacy issues; viruses
cyberbullying, 150, 156-57
DARPAnet, 118
dead-letter offices, 35
death, 181
Defense Department, U.S., 91, 118
democracy, 21, 25, 158
dictation, 44-45, 48-49, 79
digital divide, 186-88
direct mail, 55-58
disinhibition, 6, 152-57
domain names, 92, 123
Don’t Send, 203, 206-8
DotComGuy, 170
e-books, 178
E-COM, 59-60
e-mail
access to, 134
accidental sending of, 115
addiction to, 16, 133, 134-39, 165
address for, 92, 143-44, 147
archiving/preserving, 128, 180, 182-83
backlog of, 212
beginning of, 92, 93-97
benefits of, 102, 192
brevity of, 215
checking, 4, 195, 205, 208-13, 214
and complex matters, 217-18
control of, 108-9, 110, 111, 204-21
convenience of, 5
cost of, 11-12, 93
deletion of, 180
democratization of, 149
desensualization of, 97
and digital divide, 187
feedback cycle of, 19
first, 20-21
forwarding of, 98, 109-13, 116, 147, 205
giving up, 213
good, 214-16
government surveillance of, 129-31, 182
groups working by, 218-19
identities for, 149-50
impact of, 5, 133, 166, 220
increased usage of, 97-102
losing, 7
and loss of public space, 174
manners and standards for, 112-16
as messaging treadmill, 206
mistakes in, 205
and need for slow down, 192
nonparticipants of, 9
nonresponse to, 7
and “now,” 185
offending recipients of, 107, 108, 145, 205, 208, 217-18
overload of, 7-9, 93, 110, 206, 220
paradox of, 166
popularity of, 4-7
and privacy issues, 112-15
reading, 216-17
reliance on, 207
as reorienting time, 7
e-mail (cont.)
responding to, 104-5, 106, 108, 137, 206, 210-13, 214-17
as social and broadcast tool, 110
solutions for dealing with, 206-21
as source of news, 174
speed of, 20, 103, 105, 115, 211
storage for, 3
and to-do lists, 213-14
tone of, 6, 150-57, 208
trying to keep up with, 205
tyranny of, 19-20
uses/functions for, 105-6, 112
as visual language, 107-8
volume of, 4, 5-6, 20, 100, 103-4, 105, 148, 160, 206
White House, 182-83
Edison, Thomas, 55, 80
education, 21, 31-32
egoSurf, 168
elderly, 172, 186, 187
electronic erosion, 5
“Elkins” (blogger), 151-52
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 96, 154
employees, 186-87, 197-98. See also office workers; work
employers, 128, 166, 179, 197-98. See also business; work
Engelbart, Douglas, 94, 96
England. See United Kingdom
envelopes, 24, 33
Europe, 69-70, 74, 83, 117, 128, 186
Excite, 149
eyes, 14-16, 96-97, 154
face-to-face communication
breakdown in, 170, 172-73
and complex matters, 218
and identity, 151-58
and isolation, 16-18, 195, 201-2
lack of, 49, 206
and loss of public space, 170-76
and manifesto for a slow communication movement, 195, 200-202
text compared with, 106-7
and working groups, 218-19
Facebook, 2, 12-13, 17, 126-27, 140, 157, 166-67, 168, 173, 201
Fair Labor Standards Act (1938), 165-66
fax machines, 58, 59, 85
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 50
Federal Communications Commissio
n (FCC), 59-60, 173
feelings, expressing, 2
Fictionwise, 178
FireEye, 123
flaming, 151-53, 157
Franklin, Benjamin, 32-33, 35, 73, 146
friendships, 201-2, 207
Gaia Online, 178
Gates, Bill, 127
gender, 32, 40-41, 44, 45
“global village,” 186
globalization, 21, 77, 184
Goleman, Daniel, 153, 155, 157
Goodwin, Doris Kearns, 180-81
Google, 3, 11, 168, 174, 175, 176
Gore, Al, 86-87
government
mail as tool of, 25-28
monitoring of mail/e-mail by, 50-51, 129-31, 182
and privacy issues, 129-31
Great Britain. See United Kingdom
Great Depression, 57, 166
GTE, 93
hackers, 116-20, 124
Hafner, Katie, 90-91, 139
Hamblet, James, 61-62, 64
Hamilton, Alexander, 56, 73
handheld devices, 101-2, 134, 135-36, 164, 165, 178. See also type of device
health issues, 161
history
family, 180
of mail, 24-30
preservation of, 179-83
Holub, Miroslav, 185
horses, as carrying mail, 27-28. See also Pony Express
hostility, in telegrams, 81
Hotmail, 149
humor, in telegrams, 81
Iacoboni, Marco, 6-7, 156
identity
and address, 143-44, 146
and changes in how and what is read, 178
and digital self, 143-45
for e-mail, 149-50
and face-to-face communication, 151-58
false, 149
and privacy issues, 149
and writing way into existence, 146-58
individuality, 168
Industrial Revolution, 165, 198
information
amount of, 198
creating, 142-43
faulty, 185
missing, 188-89
overload of, 5, 75-80
storage of, 198
transmitting, 142-43
Intel Corporation, 93
Internet
access to, 204
benefits of, 196, 203