A Letter to Email
Now email feels like a chore, rather than a joy. Something you fall behind on. Something you clear out, not cherish. Rather than delight in it, you deal with it. Your relationship with email changed, and you didn't have a say.
— Hey
Basecamp announced last night that they were releasing a new product. Nothing much was mentioned other than it being somewhat related to email- a new app, new provider, something else? It’s anyone’s guess at this point.
One of the requirements to get access to their beta program is to send an email about our relationship with email. I’m intrigued, but rather than send a private email, let’s make this public.
Hey email,
What a journey we’ve gone on together. Starting in junior high, I had my first taste of email through pine. That’s so long ago that the idea of a text-based application sounds like a joke, not a wonder to behold. High school didn’t utilize email back in the late 90’s so imagine my surprise when I entered University and was assigned my own email address. mcculloj@uregina.ca
Email during University wasn’t utilized that much besides being sent the syllabi for courses. I couldn’t even submit assignments by email- I had to rush to campus and slide the papers under the professor’s door before the main department doors were locked at night.
Halfway through University (2000), email had become my door into the world. I had moved to Hartford, CT, and was living with a Jewish lawyer’s family. Thankfully, they had a family computer that I could log onto. I would sign onto my Hotmail account and write emails.
Long distance phone calls were too costly from the United States to Canada, and the time change prevented a lot of live conversations via MSN Messenger. So weird to think that conversations then were scheduled, not on a whim when one party felt like it. On my days off, I looked forward to sitting down at the computer and catching up with my family and friends.
My lasting memory from this period was reading an email from my parents informing me that they had sold their home and decided to move 45 minutes out of the city. Feeling shocked while reading an email now almost never happens, as far as news goes. I had no warning for their decision since I couldn’t be part of the daily conversations with them about what to do.
Over the next few years, I started to subscribe to more newsletters and read blogs through Gmail until I got hooked into Google Reader. Email was now in a slick new application that I enjoyed tweaking and discovering new shortcuts. Gmail was my social network.
It wasn’t much longer until my emails became a vehicle for romance. Lengthy good morning emails sent almost daily, regardless of whether there was a response received. I enjoyed the process of finding things to write about, ways to express how I felt about the women, and clicking the ‘Send’ key late at night.
There was joy in seeing an unread email during those days. What treasure lays inside? How did they react to reading my words? Did they send a picture?
Flash forward to now. Email has become anything but a joy to use. Multiple email accounts for work, 80% of my actions being delete or archive for later. Great for receipts sent by email, not so great for those daily emails to notify you of sales on websites you have never visited again.
Email was a place of joy, connection, love, and fed my curiosity for the world and technology over the first decade. How quickly it soured in the next decade into a place I only venture out of necessity. The last time I received a personal email, not a personalized one, is a distant memory.
I am hopeful that Hey changes my behaviour when I see an unread email. Right now it leads to the default action of delete. Let’s bring back that joy of clicking open.
