You need to read your email.
And not wait for me to poke you on another platform to read your email.
It isn’t fair to expect me – in crisis mode, as you know – to manage so many communication tools to keep body and soul together
- Text
- Messenger
- Instagram DM
- Twitter DM (yep, still)
- BlueSky DM
- Threads
- Mastodon
- TikTok DM
- Snapchat DM
- Tumblr
- Telephone
- Flyer in mailslot
- USPS
- WhatsApp (I don’t know how to use this)
Everyone has their favorite. Most of them are not email. I don’t understand how in a world of apps, people don’t check their email. Old people like me, not Alpha Generation.
It is great to have choices, but there has to be a common denominator or we’ll talk past each other. The idea of keeping track of the combo each person I know prefers is mind boggling. My mind is already boggled.
I like to think that email is my serious or professional communication – I use it for my work with the blog and PLC. I use it to communicate with colleagues about work stuff. I use it for tracking purposes. Also, I use it because I can attach documents, images, videos, and practically anything. It is ideal for group messages.
All of the others are more for interpersonal stuff and sometimes reaching out to new people when I share a platform with them. And for poking them when I need them to read an email.
Why email? Well, most people have an email address that they use to sign up for these other apps – not always, sometimes they use cell phone numbers. Still from a practical stance, most people in any group have an email address so its the obvious common denominator. Trying to get everyone in your conversation to unanimously pick one of the many apps is not realistic.
If email were truly dead, the contact apps would have fields for all of these other platforms. Right? If email were dead, newsletters like Substack would not be wildly popular and growing. And if email were dead, schools would not use it to communicate with students of Generation Z and Alpha Generation.
Point of order – schools are not doing a great job teaching young people how to use email. I worked on a project with two Gen Z students who could read and reply to messages. They did not know how to reply all, attach anything, cut and paste into a new message, nothing. No one had ever taught them. They could open a document, screenshot it, and share on social media. Creative, but not always useful.
I understand that by the time Alpha Generation runs the world, email will be dead (or vintage.) But they are mostly 13. While they drive culture and coolness, they can’t literally drive nor make corporate decisions. My 13 year old nephew refuses to email or check any DM. Text is his groove. I am willing to copy and paste links into text messages for him and his 17 year old brother. That’s where I draw the line.
Generation X learned how to use email and we taught our parents (Boomers and Silent Generation) in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Now we have to teach Gen Z and Alpha Gen how to use it. Millenials are on their own. The mistake is assuming that someone fluent in technology can translate that fluency to any platform.
I have an email group of about a dozen people who support me on a regular basis – rides, tangible help, cheering me up. Can you imagine if I did a text chain to plan a multi-driver expedition to my gastroenterologist? I need to throw it out there to see who is available. X person can take me, Y person can pick me up, Z person can take me and stay with me for an hour, ABC person is a backup, DEF person is able to drive me when I need a endoscopy/colonoscopy. That’s a dozen people reading texts from six people including me that aren’t actually relevant. No one is going to reply to a few folx by text because it is not a simple feature. They reply all.
It is not effective, nor a good community building tool.
On the other hand, if I use everyone’s individually preferred medium, I’ll spend hours setting up rides, remembering who said what where, and probably just give up because OMG.
Some people don’t like email, others are overwhelmed by it – especially the threads. There are options and accommodations available on email that are not true elsewhere. Of course it is imperfect. But I posit it is the best option.
So read your email every day, even just skimming it. Put the app on your phone. Set up filters to reduce spam. Somewhere in there is important information from people you care about (me.) Really if you want to show up for me, don’t make me chase you down. I’m struggling with a lot. Subscribe to a Substack newsletter to keep it fun.
And for God’s sake, don’t read the email and then flip over to one of the above tools to discuss it with me.
A final word. If you think I’m referring to you specifically, I probably am. But I’m not singling one person out because this is a problem on a larger scale. I might piss you off, I might put you on the defensive, I might have zero impact on your choices. But at least you’ll know where to find me – in your inbox.
