by Jerry Riley

Email, or FaceBook messages, for me at least, are second only to face to face communication. If people are going to use email as communication they must set aside a time or times during EVERY day to at least check their email.

Electronic communication has benefits. The sender can send the message whenever they think of it, while it is fresh in their mind. The information is in document form so the sender can say exactly what they mean, well, depending on auto correct and proof reading. The recipient can read it at a convenient time

Anytime anyone changes their email address, they need to let the people they want to keep in contact with know.

In my case, once I send someone an electronic communication I consider it now up to them to either reply or not. If the people do not reply, eventually I will not bother trying to communicate with them. I guess that could be their intent, and what a revoltin’ development this is!

If someone finds that electronic communication is not for then, then, I think, it is up to them to alert people that they do not want to use electronic communications. I would think one of the most basic steps would be to delete their email account, stop giving it to people as a contact method, or, at least tell people email is not the best way to contact you.

I guess that voice mail, or an old fashioned answering machine can cause the same confusion. As Sheldon, on the Big Bang Theory said “The leaving of a message is one half of a social contract, which is completed by the checking of the message! If that contract breaks down, then all social contracts break down, and we descend into anarchy” Continuing the thought, you either respond to or ignore the message.

Jerry Riley comments for the News Bulletin. He is a retired telecommunications supervisor.

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