Snail Mail (Minus the Snail)
September 13th, 2017
I used to think of emails as an old and outdated form of communication reserved for adults. Now that I am an adult, I realize that it is a super convenient way to get into contact with people in a professional format that also can be used more casually. They do say that all old trends come back around, or maybe I can finally appreciate emails because I am older than I was when I first thought of it as dinosaur tool (eek!). Talk about an iGeneration kid! I never understood how truly amazing it is and the history behind the creation and evolution of such a form of communication. The way that the whole system started was based on the thought that maybe computers should be able to do more than just process info. True to their name, and similar to the postal service we have today, email would be sent out a certain number of times a day “into the world.” To be able to instantly send out information to people that weren’t physically around within hours was unheard of. We now know that that was only the beginning.
In current news, the iPhone 8 and iPhone X came out earlier today! I am beyond excited to live in this world. To see where we came from and where we are today makes me stoked to see what the future of technology holds! 
The big deal about the iPhone 8 is the wrap around glass display and the iPhone X has facial recognition, which is not a new concept on the smartphone market, however it is for Apple. These fancy new editions will have your wallet significantly lighter with the iPhone X ringing up right around $1,000. Hopefully you signed up for a plan with free upgrades!
More to come next week on Jay’s Exposé!
September 17th, 2017 at 5:26 pm
It is interesting to see how the social norms around email have changed. When I first started using email, the expectation was that someone would answer an email within a day or so of you sending it. Now I’ve been in phone meetings where documents are shared via email during the meeting, with the expectation that the delivery will be pretty close to instantaneous.
This also has its downsides. I often get email from people wondering if I had received their earlier email, because I haven’t responded within 10 minutes. I do try to gently (well, sometimes) point out that email is meant to be asynchronous. When I have a lot to do, I will often ignore my email for hours, which some consider anti-social but I find helps my productivity. Being able to concentrate is not consistent with answering every email immediately.
At the same time, I find it difficult to ignore a ringing phone. When I was growing up, it was considered extremely rude to not answer the phone. And the phone company did lots of research to insure that the phone’s ring was a irritating as possible (to insure that you would answer quickly). But my kids are more than comfortable not answering the phone if it is inconvenient for them. Norms change and evolve.
It will be interesting to see where norms around electronic communication end up as the technology advances.