Thinking About Email

I emailed a fellow blogger/writer a couple of days ago, mainly just to check in and see how some choices they made to peel away from social timelines were working for them. I was curious as someone who’s found themselves pulling away as well.

I got a response back overnight. That’s when it hit me this was a different kind of dialog than I would ever get in social media spaces. We both had time to think and measure what was said. Neither message was long by any means, but there seemed to be more depth in the exchange. It was different.

It has me analyzing this space, one that’s usually filled with junk mail that I’ll cull every couple of weeks. It’s not too different from my physical mailbox. I’ll check it frequently and with anticipation when I’m expecting something, but otherwise I have zero interest in what’s going on there.

I wrote some time back about sending “good mail”, something different from all the credit card applications and sale ads many of us get bombarded with. Instead, we could send letters, postcards, or small gifts, totally at random. Anything to bring random sparks of joy to one another.

I see no reason email couldn’t be treated the same way. The brief conversation I had seems to be appreciated on both ends. Why not make a habit of sending your friends and loved ones the same kind of things like short notes, photos, or anything else you like, fully at random as a way to spark joy in someone? In the process, we can be marking those unwanted emails as junk so that it becomes more and more a space we want to be in.

That’s it. That’s the thought.