Hi Listers,
Been away for a few days, and I find I have now more than 250 e-mails
to read, (not all are from this list) and some possibly, to respond to. As I
started working through the backlog, a number of thoughts occured to me.
Now, I am going to enjoy catching up, no less than I separately enjoy
trawlling back through the Spridgets archive area. With what limited
spare/quality time I have ("Yes, Dear, I will fix that
door/drain/clock/etc.etc",
"Yes Son, you can't load what? I'll be there in a minute etc.etc", you get
the
picture), I draw a huge amount of sheer enjoyment from the quick-witted,
very helpful, informative and (mostly) courtious e-mails posted here. And
I do actually like to observe the few verbal skirmishs that take place!
I thing it so amusing to find that the "Subject" heading, can run for a long
time without any amendment or change, while the body of the mesage can
move to a quite different subject, and may even not be about the list subject
at all. I can appreciate though, that there may be others, whose time is more
limited, or who are more stressed-out than me, who would not feel so happy
about this. That "Montana Bob" syndrome, perhaps?
Equally, I find that many e-mailers from all lists I belong to, have a
habit of
not editing out the un-essentials from a previous e-mail when they reply to
it.
When I find one like that, which I wish to keep, I re-mail it back to
myself, after
I do the necessary editing, then I delete the original. I don't mind doing
this.
I suppose the main point I am coming to is that all the above is fine, once
I have
the time and patience to deal with it. What concerns me is the long-term.
Suppose I forgot to un-subscribe whilst away for two weeks, the total of
e-mails
queued up could be approaching 2,000. Would I feel as happy about the time
taken to download all those, and then find that there was a large amount of
duplication in some of the messages, or that the subject headings were mis-
leading, and were opened only to find they were not related to the list
subject?
I suppose the right answer here is that if I am stupid enough not to remember
to un-subscribe, then I should suffer the consequences. But.... I don't
want to
miss any e-mail which informs or humours me in relation to Spridgets.
However, are we, in a sense, creating a form of cyber-litter and/or
dis-information?
Are we actively mis-using a medium, one which gives us the opportunity to
communicate quickly and effectively, to the extent that it may jam up in the
long run, or like Montana Bob, causes people to become disillusioned and
leave
the scene?
Will our time in the future be taken up more with "Virtual Reality" rather
than
"Reality"? I see this happening with my kids. I don't thing I alone can
change the
direction their lives are taking. AAAGGHHH, the power of the computer/'net.
Right, I'm off the soapbox. Thanks for reading thus far. Now back to the
garage.
Ron in an a "Mist"; Irish, of course!
'59 Sprite "Oggibip" [40, Sunday week!]
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