James Fallows fears email.
I make my living writing things down, but even I have reached the point where I am not willing to put any sentiment whatsoever into reproducible form — in an email that could be forwarded, in a document that could be cut-and-pasted — without thinking about how it would look if it got into unintended hands.
Brad DeLong does not.
Second, for most of us the big problem has never been that people will repeat what we say, but rather that they will repeat what we did not say–or take what we say out of context.
. . .In such a world as this one in which we live in, email and other means of communication that automatically create a record that can be used to push back against distortions is a blessing.
NewMexiKen has had to testify in federal court about what I meant in emails I had written, so I know what can happen. The written word is very powerful. It demands thoughtfulness, which is sadly lacking in so many email messages. (And, indeed, some of the informality of email has bled over into more formal documents too.)
Say what you mean, be polite, and don’t write what you don’t want repeated. Read, revise and proofread.
That said, I go along with DeLong.
And you?
Yes, I go along with DeLong as well because I value recorded communication, if only to cover my a$$.
Having been the person who accidentally replied to all instead of just the sender with a factually accurate but politically incorrect rant about something inane the Glaxo IT department was foisting on all their users, I never send an email now without letting it sit in the drafts folder for at least a few minutes.
Also, having used IM in the past, I refuse to use it now: it’s too disruptive to “flow”, and its chatty nature encourages intemperate exchanges.