The Etiquette Edge, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 17

E-mail

Think Before You Send

Without question, e-mail is one of the great conveniences of modern society. By the same token, it can be intrusive and, in the extreme, overwhelming, threatening—flooding us with information and consuming our time to the point of being counterproductive because of its sheer volume and persistence. But however we feel about it, electronic mail is a fact of life in business and is a growing presence in our personal lives.

The Radicati Group, a technology marketing research firm, estimated that there were more than 4 billion e-mail accounts by the end of 2015. That translates to over 144 billion e-mails each day. Communicating by e-mail has become the status quo in our wired society, and for good reason. ...