But email has an ugly side too. And there are four things that I really find tough and unhelpful about the means of communication:
Email is easily open to misinterpretation with much of our communication coming through non-verbal body means. Tone of voice, facial expression and subtle physical posture changes are all missed, and so is much of the substance of our communication. Be careful what you write and how you write it. Too often others misconstrue what we mean and the proverbial hits the fan.
Email is also permanent. Once it is out there it's there, you cant get it back and the permanence of what you have written can come back to haunt you. Just this week I said some things in a mail that where not helpful and almost certainly even sinful. It's out there now and cannot ever be erased, taken back and undone an neither can the pain it caused. Some years ago when I was an engineer a message I posted on an internet forum about a product that had not met sales-pitch promises was traced back the firm for which I worked and cost the firm some serious money...doh!
The third thing I really don't like about email is that it is too quick. A letter is slower to write, it forces our thinking to slow down and be more deliberate. It gives us room to choose our words and thoughts carefully. Most importantly you have to put a letter in an envelope and fill in an address....with email a slip of a finger and someone who should never have received a mail gets it in all it's unfortunate truth.
Fourthly letters almost always used to garner a response. Email has become like junk mail and I often find myself ignoring mails for days and even weeks much to the frustration of people who want to get some response from me. Email allows me to be lazy in my communication and distanced from people. I've resolved to do more telephoning now...it's more personal and powerful and it's a dialogue not a simple monologue which leads to better communication.
Love it or hate it: email has changed the way the world works and for a church like ours where we have no central office and lay elders who work 9-5 jobs it has an extraordinarily valuable tool. But it has it's shortcomings and its dangers.
Most importantly there is the person sitting behind the keyboard who is able to prove their stupidity in perpetuity with the click of a mouse...be careful lest you be recorded a fool in posterity!
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