PROSConvenience - Especially in the business world, you are not usually in the same place as the person with whom you wish to communicate. E-mail is a time-saving and generally less expensive way for people to exchange information.
Allows Asynchrony - Unlike attending board meetings and conventions, each person can decide when, where and how much time they will spend dealing with the information they receive.
CONSOverload of Information - Because it is the sender who controls who are the recipients of the information, receivers are subject to an inbox full of junk mail and irrelevant information (i.e. "Fwd to all" function).
Loss of Social Skills - Relying on e-mail as a primary form of communication decreases one's ability and number of opportunities to converse face to face with others. As a result, they are not given the chance to develop social skill or become comfortable in social situations.
Loss of Context - Through reading and literary communication, important elements of oral communication (such as tone and body language) are lost. By its very nature, written information becomes fragmented and detached from its original context.
What now?
Once the basic pros and cons are identified, the questions begin to roll:
- To what extent to the pros weigh out the cons (or vice versa)?
- Overall, is e-mail beneficial to society? Or does it simply act to distance us from each other?
- Why, in a world with the capacity for instant video and satellite conferencing, do we still rely on/choose to communicate via e-mail and text-messaging?
- To what extent should human relations be compromised for efficiency and convenience of communication?
