Without Email...

I'd like to propose a question to everyone. What would you do if you didn't have email for a day? Would your business grind to a near halt? Could you function as a designer or entrepreneur? Think about how much of your daily life revolves around the internet and email. If your like me, maybe you receive thirty to fourty emails a day and spend five to six hours on the internet. Or maybe that doesn't compare. Still, very little of my communication happens through "snail mail" or even the telephone any more. It seems like we take for granted the luxury of having email. So how would you cope without this modern form of communication?

The generation before mine may find themselves saying, back in the day we didn't have the internet, there was no email. We still got things done and we had to walk up hill in both directions in the snow to do it. But I say, do you think you could do that again and still maintain the same level of efficiency. I'm not sure you could. The immediacy of email and the internet compliment this fast paced world in a way that has allowed businesses to accomplish tasks that would normally take a couple weeks in only a couple days. I don't think we could digress back without some painful sacrifices and a whole lot of complaining.

The crazy thing about this is that the internet is only getting faster and more reliable (kinda). Back when email first came about, you had to wait a couple hours to receive it and you were never really sure if it got there. Most found themselves calling the recipient to make sure that they received the email. Talk about a pointless waste of time. Not any more. Email has become so ingrained in our daily lives it's hard to imagine what it would be like without it ... until you don't have it any more. Still some of you might remember when there was no web, no email, no PDA's with email and web access but for the emerging generation of working professionals it has always been there. We rely on this relatively new technology for everything we do. We are almost helpless without it.

I am in the midst of experiencing this crisis and I will tell you that I can not imagine what it must have been like. For now though, I am relying on my personal email (which is about as fast as a comatose sloth), my cell phone (texting), and someone two floors down who still has their corporate email for all my communications. It has been a pain but I think I can weather the storm till we get our system back online and I can keep up with the world once more.