email is a medium

Is email a medium? Of course it is. It certainly is a means to an end. A way to communicate back and forth for certain. But have you ever thought of it as a 'medium'? One interesting aspect of email is that when you read someone's note to you - it feels "live". No matter how dated the message, it still feels live. What a great medium for one-to-one communication. Trouble is, email now is 50% spam, and forever tainted with the smell of spam. Another real danger of email is that it can be misinterpreted. There are no facial expressions, no points of emphasis to share with the reader. That is left for the receiver to interpret - and quite frequently, those points are misinterpreted and misunderstood. It has happened so often with me, I now limit my emails to content. If ever there needs to be Q&A session or something is strategically important, I will pick up the phone. That said, I love email. A chance to share your thoughts on every subject under the sun...to exercise the mind and fingers...to share convictions and opinions without facial expressions. Perhaps conviction requires facial expressions...and someone without a delete key.