A recent tragedy in the family of our missionary friends showed up the great blessing that email is in our society. In minutes they notified hundreds of supporters and friends around the world, all with one email! Within the hour prayers arose on their behalf on many continents.
They tried to reach by phone their daughter in China, were unable, so they asked the principle of the school to tell her in person. But then she used email to pour out her shock and emotions. That email soon circled the earth and was sent to many others, so that at the funeral she said, "Quoting from my now famous email..."
There were many references to their son's kind counsel in his emails to friends too, during his funeral.
The parents' Inbox has been magnificently flooded with emails of condolences over the past few weeks. The beauty of it all is, they can save, file them, and read them later.
Do you grasp what a great concept email is? Beyond the savings in postage, and time in communicating all over the globe?
I'm gaining so many new friends by email that I'm losing count! Fortunately, they don't usually write all on the same day. :) Has your friends quotient gone up?
Emails are generally neater and more legible than handwritten notes. It's easier to dash off a quick reply, and to insert comments between the remarks of the recipient. Snail mail has it's sentimental perks, however, email is far more practical!
But do you know how to get the fullest benefits? How not to abuse the system? Because, it is going to get complicated, if we don't all behave.
Aside from recognizing SPAM and keeping yourself clean of it, what are some of the benefits you like the most? What are the etiquette rules you set for your behaviour?
For instance, do you pass on every Forwarded little article or tear-jerk story you receive? Just the other day I got one with a virus warning. It sounded so sincerely concerned and dangerous. But I now go to check at certain sites online to see if it were true. Turned out to be a hoax that's been around the block a few times!
Or what about when you insert all your friends' email addresses in the To: line, and then they begin to steal those addresses for their mailing lists? It is unethical. You've put temptation - like a chocolate under a chocoholic's nose.
Those of us who do business by email, find our Inbox flooded with email just about every time we check. It gets rather time-consuming to read emails that are just fluff, or junk mail. We want it to be about business, or a real note from a real, caring friend. My delete finger gets quite trigger-happy when I see email addresses I do not recognize, or topics that don't have anything to do with me.
I challenge you to set ethical standards for how you use email. Then, if tragedy hits your family, the ones that flood into your Inbox will all be from loyal friends who truly care. And there will be LOTS of 'em!
Back to New-to-Net (index).
Ruth Marlene Friesen
The Responsible One
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Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada