“Whore” – the email response to a politely declined request for sponsorship is now part of email history.
Had I received such an email, I’m inclined to think I would have passed it on to a few colleagues. However, when I received a copy for the third, or was it the fourth time, last week – under the heading how not to communicate in email – I asked myself why we are so quick to share someone else’s misspeak with everyone else when it is on-line.
We already know that this is not the way to communicate via email, so we can drop that as a reason for spreading it virally! The author ‘deserved it’ is another reason, but I have at the back of my mind that the ‘sender’ claimed someone else used his email address.
When we communicate in the on-line space we sometimes forget to exercise common sense, and some fail to show basic good manners.
For some reason we treat mail-type communication totally differently.
It is still regarded as bad form to open or read other people’s mail, and why when we pen ‘dear sir, madam, Jim or Jill’ at the start of a written communication do we tend to be more polite and more thoughtful in how we construct our sentences or what we want to say.
Is it the instant speed with which email communicates that causes us to be more blunt, rude and forthright than we would be in a letter or on the telephone?
If a person’s mail is accidentally delivered to our house or place of business we would make sure it got to the right person as soon as we could. Yet a recalled email message, or one sent to us inadvertently, is an invitation to check out what was sent before it is deleted. Why the difference?
Another area in the digital world where the norms of society have changed is the wireless ‘freeloader’. On Danny Watson’s Newstalk ZB show recently one chap announced he was entirely comfortable with using his neighbour’s wireless access as he only did it once a month to pay his bills. Besides, if the neighbour didn’t want him to use it he should have had it password protected!
I‘m wondering if I need to make sure my Sunday paper is put in a locked mail box as having it sitting there might suggest to people that I am offering it to them to read.
There have been two hugely different media interviews this week that provide good learning experiences. That of Cadbury New Zealand Managing Director, Matthew Oldham, with John Campbell of Campbell Live, and former All Back and Chief’s No 8 Sione Lauaki, on the main TV bulletins.
