taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (02/08/87)
Have you ever sent a computer msg that was misunderstood by the receiver and caused him/her to have ill feelings toward you that were never intended by you? Have you ever been the receiver in such a situation? Because computer mail is becoming more and more a part of people's lives, especially in the academic and business domains, these kinds of problems in relationships will occur more and more frequently, it seems. I would like to discuss the phenomenon a little here, if I may, and then solicit feedback that any of you may like to give me. * * * Computer mail makes written communication very easy, but this great ease may lead to problems in relationships due to misunderstandings of content, or more frequently, misunderstandings of motivation and feelings. More written msgs will be sent more quickly than without computer mail, so the chance of misunderstandings is greatly increased. More specifically, the sender of a written msg may not have a very accurate idea of the way the receiver will understand the msg and of the impact on the receiver's feelings. And if the msg unexpectedly leads to misunderstanding or ill feelings, the sender is not present to correct the msg for the receiver, as he would be in oral communication by phone or in person. On the other hand, the more frequent the two people interact orally, the less chance there is of misunderstanding a written msg, and the more chance there is of correcting a misunderstanding that did occur. Several aspects and conjectures concerning written communication that one might consider include these: 1. Communication of Emotion a. Sender The sender may tend to communicate stronger emotion, than in oral conversation, because the receiver is not present. This strengthening may occur because the sender doesn't care as much about the effect on the absent receiver, or because the sender may unconsciously feel like greater emphasis is needed because he can't see the receiver's ongoing response and doesn't realize how strong it really is. b. Receiver The receiver may tend to feel stronger emotion than the sender intended to communicate, especially if the emotion is negative. c. Combined effect Putting the two effects together, causes a written msg to generate a much stronger emotional impact than intended or expected by the sender. I think that a good example is when a person replies to a msg addressed to a bulletin board or an alias and accidentally sends his reply to the bulletin board or alias. He may then receive a barrage of msgs, some worded very strongly and negatively. The impact of each such msg is probably much greater than the sender intends or expects, and the end result may be very ill feelings. 2. Communication of subtle humor Subtleties may not come through the written medium as expected, leaving the receiver with different feelings than intended, maybe negative feelings. 3. Use of receiver's or sender's name Omission of either may leave the receiver with a feeling of very impersonal communication, not intended by the sender. 4. Delay or absence of reply Since sending computer mail is so easy, delay or absence of a reply may leave the sender wondering if he accidentally offended the receiver, especially if the msg send is short and the reply is expected to be short. Just the same: Since sending computer mail is so easy, some people may receive too many msgs to handle, and would be spending too much time answering mail if they tried to answer them all. This would be more true of managers and instructors, whom a lot of people have reason to contact. Maybe it would be good for the mail system to have form replies for this situation -- at the user's request, a reply might be sent saying, "Due to the large number of msgs I receive, I am too busy to read and reply to your msg. Please come and see me during office hours if you would like to discuss the matter with me and receive an answer." Another reply might be, "I received your msg, but I am very busy and will not be able to reply for some time." Again, let me mention that the greater the frequency of oral contact between the sender and receiver the less the chance of these misunderstandings. Since computer mail is becoming more and more important to our society, and to our relationships with other people, maybe its impact is worth researching by social psychologists. Finally, I encourage you to send me any perspective you may have on this matter, in particular, any personal experiences as sender or receiver. I am interested in knowing if you feel that this is an important concern or not. - - -
taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (02/11/87)
I hope you'll post more on this topic, as I am interested, but it appears to me that everything you have said so far follows from the limited bandwidth of an e-mail message. That is, since we have less material to interpret, we have a greater chance of a miscommunication. (Perhaps I should have also added 'less redundancy'.) 'Is there more room for error in e-mail than in written mail?' That's what I'd like to see addressed. Alex Glockner
taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (02/12/87)
>Is there more room for error in e-mail than in written mail?
In principal, probably not much. In principle, both are exchanges
of words about specific matters, i.e., written communications. Letter
and memo writers have to learn the arts of letter and memo writing,
the former which is taught in grade school and the latter which is
usually a skill acquired on the job at work.
Not surprisingly, e-mail writing is learned on-the-job too.
The *one* crucial difference between written and emailed writing may
be the immediacy of writing email *on line* (This doesn't apply
to offline email writers...) I find that I have a tendency to
write email on line rather quickly, edit it fairly sloppily, and then
I hit CR or "." or whatever the sending signal in my system is, and
its gone, forever carved in silicon chips and on magnetic tape. The
ease of transmission and the lack of incentive to edit and rewrite
carefully may be the only crucial difference between email and
written mail in terms of skill requirements.
However, my remarks about email DO NOT apply to writing on bulletin
board or computer conferencing systems, which is another matter
entirely (although it has the same "immediacy" problem as email).
Email is one-to-one or one-to-a-select-group; BBS stuff is much
more like broadcasting...
--Tom Mandel mandel@well.UUCP mandel@sri-kl.arpa
taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (02/24/87)
There has been a great deal of discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of the e-mail explosion. Everyone seems to agree that the increase in communication is good overall, but there is some concern that written communications has deficiencies which are lacking in verbal communications. I do not think this is something to worry about. The problem is not that written words necessarily distort meaning; the problem is that people are not as familiar with the ins and outs of written communications as they are with verbal. This is not the individual's fault. Our society has for the last 40 years relied heavily on the television and the telephone for long distance communications. Advanced transportation has also increased the oppurtunity for face to face interaction. These trends have reduced the need for personal written letters delivered through the post, (increases in postal volume are more a result of systematic mailings such as bills, junk mail, etc). In short, our writing skills have atrophed, (or never given an opportunity to develop). I feel this will change as more children grow up in a society where e-mail is a fact of life. The school system in my hometown (Foxborough, MA) has already distributed 100+ PC's amongst approximately 2000 students grades K-12. These children may not be on USENET, but they do have keyboards in front of them. I was in high school when the first PC's were hitting the market, there are now fourth graders with access to Mac's! I expect to be amazed by the progress of my children as they grow up. They will probably know what I know at half my age.