EeeeeewMail & Internet Etiquette

photo: Feathered friends sharing IM chuckle.





Grunts, gestures and log pounding
Long distance by foot, smoke signals and carrier pigeons
Tin can talkies, Pony Express and snail mail
Notes in a bottle, billet deux , telegrams and telephones
Satellite phones, Dick Tracy cells, PDFs and 4G
Email, FB, chatting, IM
Texting and (back to the birds) twittering ...

Woke up this morning resolved to put into practice something I thought of a month ago. It is the opposite of those glurgy email forwards that say with words, adorable kittens and music that they appreciate your email forwards even if they never respond and how emails keep friendship going and how the bond you create through sharing forwarded emails is so strong...(ad nauseum or etc. depending on your opinion of them).
For some reason in December, I stepped back and looked at my email habit. Thought: why don’t I send out a mea culpa message and allow folks to opt out. While I, wonderful, discerning person that I am, screen the stuff I get and send on only the IMHO best, perhaps there might be someone—or even two—who disagree or don’t enjoy my Best Of, or are too busy to read or whose caches are already overflowing, or who (gasp) don’t share my sense of humor. Perhaps these sensitive souls don’t want to hurt my feelings.
Well, heck, I can take it. There might even be former soulmates in my peripatetic life who don’t feel the need to keep connected to someone they may never see again. People who got along without me before they met me and would like to do it again. No ill will, just a reluctance to request me to sever the connection.
I wondered if I am an Email stalker, persisting in unwanted attentions despite a lack of encouragement. Or it could be that the silent ones on my modest list are happy to receive and not give.
I can hear the shouts of “get a life” out there, thank you; I’m just explaining the thought that struck me last month, that Email groups are the new Christmas card list. Back in the days of snail mail and thank you notes, you kept a hardcopy address book of those who once shared your life but one of you moved, or moved on, or changed jobs, spouses, neighborhoods, tax brackets, schools, interests & passions or stopped going to the gym/yoga class/Starbucks/club/board meetings/volunteer job. Ad nauseum or etc. Once a year, you would mail out cards (sometimes accompanied by the dreaded Family Newsletter) to keep connected. Some would add a message, some just sign their name. Lists got adjusted by those meticulous or insecure enough to keep track and eliminate anyone who failed to mail one.
Email forwards, being instant, effortless, free and funny/interesting /syrupy/enlightening or full of facts or import, tend to accumulate longer lists than hand-written, stamp-required cards. I’d gathered all my friends—dear, related, virtual, former and others—into a group called “Funny” and hit send.
I try to send them in BCC mode to keep from exposing their addresses to who-the-heck-knows-who, and remove the layers of addresses from those who don’t (but fear the horse is long gone from that barn). Some reply LOL, ROFLOL, :o} or Thanks! Others send an email once in a blue moon. Others never.
I decided to clean up my list. Offer to remove without prejudice anyone who doesn’t enjoy the forwards. Create a clean IMHO Fun Group 2010. With unlimited electronic memory, the addresses will still be available for breaking news.
The annual Opt Out Email. My new Internet Etiquette.
After all, if they’re not having fun, what’s the point?

SLI