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OPINION: The message about email: be careful [Reading Eagle, Pa.](Reading Eagle (PA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) April 28--It's hard to remember a time before email. What did we do without it Now, sometimes, I wonder what we should do with it. Other than face-to-face conversation, it has become the primary form of communication in my life, replacing the telephone. On an average day at work, I receive 175-200 emails. I'm not alone. "I communicate internally and with others a lot (by email)," John Weidenhammer, president of Weidenhammer, a Wyomissing information technology company, told me. "On average I look at at least 200 emails per day. I may respond to a third of them. If I look at my spam filter I get 150 more that get trapped. For me it's a preferred way of communicating. I get many more important emails in a day than I get phone calls. It used to be the other way around." Sometime in the last decade, email communication exploded. My belief is it was the result of the ongoing development of smartphones, which make email and text messaging so convenient. But forms of email have been around much longer than many of us may realize, especially in the business world. "There were various forms of electronic messaging even before the term 'email,'" Weidenhammer said. "It goes back to the '80s. It wasn't until the mid '80s or late '80s that use of email internally to organizations became a very popular thing. "A lot of things converged to make this happen, not just AOL. IBM had a system. There were message boards and Listservs. The '80s was when this thing really took off even before the Internet became a big thing." Now it is interwoven into many of our lives -- until the next invention comes along. There are many benefits. The use of email is a time saver for me. I am able to communicate with others in my professional and personal lives immediately. It allows me to share information with multiple people at one time. It provides a record of the information that has been shared. For all the benefits, there are just as many, if not more, problems and dangers. Here are some of them I have learned: Just as spoken words can't be taken back, the same is true for written words. And there is a clear record of them. People often will write things that they wouldn't say in person. That's been true with telephone communication, too. There's something about not having to look a person in the eye that makes us bolder. People often misinterpret what is written. As much as we all like to believe we are good writers, many of us at times don't realize that what we meant to communicate can be interpreted in various ways. When I'm writing a sensitive email message, I usually read it at least three times. Often, I walk away, then come back and read it again. Even so, there still are reasons for concern. There is no guarantee of privacy. If you are using a company account, you give up ownership of your information. "Most email users assume they have privacy and they really don't," Weidenhammer said. "Most forms of email are not secured communication. Unless there's a strong encryption technique, those messages can be intercepted." Emails sometimes are forwarded to the wrong people. Who hasn't sent one to a person you are writing about because you click "reply" instead of "forward" Or "reply all" when the response was meant only for one person "You need to be careful," Weidenhammer said. "You should look at 'to' and 'from' before clicking 'send.'" And there is nothing to prevent those emails from being forwarded to others for whom they were not intended, intentionally or by mistake. "Confidential information can be shared," Weidenhammer said. "You have to keep in mind that email, like voice mail, can be forwarded to someone else, so you shouldn't say anything that you don't want repeated. Email has a life of its own and can be retrieved." There are the dangers of viruses, which can be imbedded in a message, and hacking, in which someone can take over your account and create havoc through lies and inaccurate information. Deleted emails don't disappear. Many companies frequently back up their servers, which means that even deleted messages are saved. Weidenhammer said there is software being developed that will permanently destroy messages within a specified time. "Like 'Mission Impossible,'" he said, "this message will self-destruct in five seconds." Even with all the concerns, email remains a valuable tool. Like many others things, we need to be careful how we use it. Contact Harry Deitz: 610-371-5004 or [email protected] ___ (c)2013 the Reading Eagle (Reading, Pa.) Visit the Reading Eagle (Reading, Pa.) at readingeagle.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |