E-mail and Behavioral Changes

Introduction

I.1. Electronic communication, what is the problem?

Have you been overwhelmed by the amount of mail and text messages in your e-mail inbox, be it on your mobile, your personal computer, or your smartphone? Have you been harassed by a colleague demanding an immediate response to his e-mails? Are you, sometimes, annoyed by constantly being interrupted by notifications, telephone calls, messages and by not being able to concentrate on what you are doing? Have you received important information about your career by message, when you believed this should have been dealt with by a meeting in person?

Or maybe you have sent a message or answered your phone while driving? Or even tripped up while checking your messages while walking? Perhaps you have wondered if the people who are talking to themselves in the street, if the members of your family who appear completely unavailable at family mealtime, if your usually reasonable friend who has been posted drunk and dishevelled on a social network, were not heralding a societal change that you could not identify with?

You have, therefore, found yourself in situations similar to those in which Angel Rafran found himself throughout that day.

But there are several more similar situations!

Have you ever had to put an end to a heated dispute between teammates wound up by a bit of a lively conversation which was spread on the companies’ network through electronic mail? Are you sometimes concerned about the cost of your company’s ...