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At this moment, many people rely on email as heavily as they do on telephone/cell-phone communication. Personally, I limit all of my communication (except for urgent or immediate issues) strictly to email. Why? It's faster, easier, and frankly, more reliable. BUT... there are some things that you should NOT do through email.
DO NOT break up with somebody through email.
A lot of you are probably thinking to yourself "Well, of course...", but this sort of thing happens daily, I'm sure. A breakup deserves face-to-face communication or (at the very least) a phone call. Email is the most impersonal of all forms of communication. When it comes to something as intensely personal as a relationship, impersonal dismissals can hurt the most. Plus, it doesn't reflect very well on your caring nature.
DO NOT ask somebody out through email.
This one goes hand-in-hand with the first. Honestly, what kind of an impression are you giving the person you're asking out? He/she will probably assume you're a quiet, plotting introvert without any real communication skills. Even though he/she may be right, you don't want to give that impression!
DO NOT try to solve arguments through email.
No matter how eloquent your writing style may be,
compassion cannot be expressed through email. Anger, on the other hand, is easily reflected through the use of CAPITAL LETTERS and a few strung-together explicatives. I've been guilty of this transgression on several occasions. It's easy to do, so don't let yourself get caught with the desire to "get it over with" by clicking the Reply button.
If you are sent an angry or insulting email, DO NOT reply immediately.
In fact, it would probably be best not to reply at all. When I get an angry email, my first reaction is to send a doubly insulting and pissy email in return. Unfortunately, email is immediate by nature and doesn't allow for any sort of a cool-down period.
Email is incredibly fast and easy, but it cannot reflect in a thousand words what human interaction can convey in a few short gestures. My dad once joked that in addition to electronic mail, voice mail, video mail, and snail mail, a new type of communication had been invented -- "face mail" -- in which two people stand in front of one other and talk eye-to-eye.... I guess you had to be there.
I've screwed up so many times by shooting off a mean email and going to bed, only to wake up to another slew of problems.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to email when DSL and fiber optic connections replace analog modems in the next five or so years.... Streaming video conferencing? Wow, I can insult my friends from the comfort of my desk... IN MY UNDERWEAR!
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