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Subject:E-mail: How does it affect our lives? From:Rick Lippincott <rjl -at- BOSTECH -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 22 Sep 1995 09:31:54 EDT
Now that the topic of e-mail has drifted a bit away from just -work- aspects
and now includes our -lives- as well...
Jack Worthington said
>I feel that E-MAIL has made life a lot more impersonal. This is BAD
>for society, BAD for our kids, but nevertheless, FUN to play with.
And then Pam Owen said:
>I feel just the opposite. I've developed personal relationships online that I
>enjoy very much and have done a much better job of communicating with distant
>family and friends since e-mail became available.
I've got to side with Pam's opinion. (Sorry, couldn't resist...) I became
active in on-line communications about two years ago, when I first subscribed
to CompuServe, and then my activity picked up when I started work at a company
that had e-mail access. In the past two years, I've:
* established written contact with a number of people on this list
* maintained contact with people in former jobs
* helped set up a job interview for someone on this list, met her last week
when she was here
A very interesting aspect has been some activity through CIS, where I'm fairly
active in one specific forum. After a few months of sending messages, someone
had the bright idea of hosting a party so we could all meet each other. It
worked, it's evolved into a series of parties held around the country. So
far this year, there have been gatherings in New Orleans, Chicago, Newark NJ,
Boston, Washington DC, and next month I'm flying to San Francisco for another.
I'm having a great time with friends I "met" through e-mail.
But perhaps the most -unusual- message I've gotten was the one about a
month ago, as a result of a posting on another list. I've managed
to re-establish contact with someone that I was very close to in college, but
haven't seen in many, many, many years. We're now in regular e-mail and
phone contact, catching up on good times past and even generating some new
ones.
Yep, I'd say that for me, e-mail and on-line communication have made life
more rewarding.
Rick Lippincott
Boston Technology
Wakefield, MA
rjl -at- bostech -dot- com