The Darker Side of e-mail

Like the telephone or the TV, e-mail is a technology so embedded in our lives, we think nothing of it. Both help and hindrance, on one hand it is the original "killer application" of the Internet and on the other it's a spam-spewing slave-driver.

We are used to hearing about the negative side of the balance-sheet, about e-mail's addictive nature and the unnecessary stress it injects into the modern worker's life, but we downplay these problems because it is so incredibly useful.

This week, with e-mail well into middle age (the first emails were sent in 1965), we take a look at what we know about the darker side of e-mail.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Damn it, Bones, you're a doctor. You know that pain and guilt can't be taken away with a wave of a magic wand. They're the things we carry with us, the things that make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose ourselves! I don't want my pain taken away! I need my pain!!" - Captain James Kirk, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

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