Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!bionet!apple!limbo!taylor
From: lumsdon@dtoa1.dt.navy.mil (Esther Lumsdon)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: Too Much Computer is bad
Message-ID: <955@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Date: 6 Jul 90 22:36:25 GMT
Sender: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com
Lines: 37
Approved: taylor@Limbo.Intuitive.Com

Earlier in the group, Martin Hall commented in reference to email:

> The technology is promoting a type of isolationism, that if allowed to 
> continue unchecked, can cause ordinary relationships to deteriorate that 
> otherwise would not.

I disagree particularly with the last sentence of this paragraph. I
find it _no_ more difficult to be civil/courteous/polite via e-mail
than face to face.  I feel more _connected_ via e-mail, not more isolated.
Granted, most of my communications take place outside my company.  

I do not think that e-mail technology is promoting a type of isolationism.
I believe that many people will become confrontative faster in e-mail
than they will in person as a result of trends in our society that are
unrelated to e-mail technology.  

Does anyone read the syndicated columnist Miss Manners?  She pokes a bit 
of fun at her own stodgy manners (imho), and gives courtesy a positive 
image, and promotes manners. Could a column with that sort of content have 
been popular in the 1950s? I don't think so. I believe there's been a 
decline in polite behavior since I was a child, and that it's a symptom 
of a decline in willingness to take responsibility for oneself, and a 
decline in the acceptance of delayed gratification. (Note: I am not a 
social scientist. I am a computer scientist). 

I see confrontational, flaming, and/or abusive e-mail as symptoms of a 
deeper problem, one that has no easy solution. I believe that people will 
be no more polite when using technology to communicate with others (e-mail, 
telephone) than they will be in person. I don't lay the blame for such 
behavior on technology, but on people.

In my experience, I've found that the vast majority of my e-mail is
positive, on MILNET and local bbs's.  I don't believe that e-mail technology
by itself coaxes people into confrontative communication faster than
those people would become confrontative face-to-face.

Esther Lumsdon