Why I’m grateful we still have Email

The mistake people keep making is that if they find a wonderful new tool, like email, they have to give up all others. They don’t. You have simply added another very useful means to your communications repertoire. — Judith Martin

“Email is archaic.”

Don’t tell me you haven’t heard that before. As part of the younger half of the “millennial generation,” I can say that for most of my life, texting/messaging/chatting has played a bigger role in my communication than email.

Until I reached adulthood, that is. And then I realized something very important.

Chatting, texting, messaging, Social media’ing…they’re great. They’re convenient, and they’re definitely more natural than an email.

But they’re not better than email.

Why did reaching adulthood teach me this?

Because as an adult, a lot of my ability to progress is reliant on my ability to clearly and concisely communicate my message. You could even say my life kind of depends on it.

Whether it’s in an interview, on this blog, or on Instagram, what I say carries weight. And because people are listening all the time, people that look up to me, I have to constantly consider what I say.

While I love the organic nature of chat-based communication, it lacks something that conversation always has too: planning.

When I’m chatting with someone, the message is only 50% in my control. I’m responding (or at least I should be) half the time, and therefore spending less time on crafting my message, meaning less effort put into what I want the other person to hear.

Texting — or chatting — is the same. It’s input-dependent. It requires me to make critical communication choices in the moment, and often unnecessarily steals my attention away from more important matters.

And I can’t afford to lose that valuable resource.

Jason Fried said it best:

“I believe attention is one of your most precious resources. If something else controls my attention, that something else controls what I’m capable of. I also believe your full attention is required to do great work. So when something like a pile of group chats, and the expectations that come along with them, systematically steals that resource from me, I consider it a potential enemy. “Right now” is a resource worth conserving, not wasting.”

The digital age has awarded us this ability, to converse asynchronous, but quickly. I think we should remember why it’s important to not have to “respond” all the time, and that things like email allow us the needed time to communicate effectively.

And unlike most companies, I’m not saying spam people. In fact, the opposite please. I’m sorry, but there’s little chance you have 5 things to emails someone about that are really that meaningful. Unless you’re the Pope. Then, maybe.

What I am saying, however, is that you should take advantage of the benefits that asynchronous, digital communication — like email — bring to the table.

I get instant delivery, with a considered message, and plenty of time to respond. Because the platform doesn’t encourage someone to sit on the other end waiting to respond immediately, it instead encourages me to put more care and craft into what I’m trying to say. I can be more concise and clear about what I want to communicate, and what action I want to follow.

And I don’t have to be there, responding, right away. I can keep my focus, and shift it when the time is appropriate.

It’s why I think written letters will (and should) never go away. When you’re forced to put the time and effort into what you say, you consider much more than the words on paper. And when you’re attention can be deeply invested in what you’re trying to communicate, the result is only going to be that much better.

You consider your audience, you consider your context, you consider the potential reactions…you consider, and therefore put in effort.

An effortless message will always be worse than one with effort.

Because without effort, no meaningful connection can be made. Effort, care, consideration…these are where the meaning come from.

Isn’t that what we’re all looking for anyways, with all this “chatting?” We think to ourselves:

Perhaps if I can send even more messages, more frequently, the connection will be better. Perhaps talking with this person could actually mean something for me.

Like it or not, it doesn’t work like that.

And truth be told, I’m glad. I’m not sure I’m so interested in a life without consideration.

So I’m still grateful for email, and I forever will be.

I look forward to connecting with each one of you and hearing your thoughts, they’re important to me!

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