A while ago, my father (Ed Brindley) wrote a column in a market report about the evils of e-mail. He is one of those old fashioned kind of guys who likes talking over the phone or face-to-face communication. He thinks that e-mail tends to be a poor communication vehicle. You can't see gestures or hear the tone of the other person. You have to rely on the words. And quite frankly, sometimes our words are just not enough to clearly get across what we really mean to say.
Anyway, my father got the following letter in response to his editorial. I thought it was funny. Enjoy!
Down with E-Mail
I just read Ed’s e-mail comments in his letter and felt compelled to reply. First, you are getting this by fax because I am too dumb to set up my own e-mail address. I have one for the business, but not a personal one. I desperately want to join the computer age unfortunately, I feel trapped in the telephone-television age.
When I grew up everyone was afraid we watched too much television and talked on the telephone too much. I could not and would not write, a talent that had been replaced by the telephone. All of the important information I received came from the Three Stooges, Bugs Bunny, and Walter Cronkite. Now that they are all gone and Dan Rather admitted to lying I don’t trust anything on television.
We can’t get our daughters to watch television because they are stuck on the computer, e-mailing friends and playing useless games. Lately my wife has had to force our youngest off of the computer to watch television, a much more wholesome activity, I am sure, because it is what we, her parents, approve of.
We have given each of our daughters a cell phone as they began driving so we could stay in touch. They never answer when it is us. I think they want one of those hand-held computer gadgets so they can e-mail instead. I, of course, would prefer the telephone because I think I can hear in their voice when they are doing something they shouldn’t. How do you get that from e-mail?
By the time my grandchildren get old enough for the computer, they will probably have some kind of headset that will link their thoughts directly to the computer, allowing them to think, then it’s done. They will not need to go to school since any basic question would be asked and answered with their direct link to the computer. I just hope the virus blockers can keep them from becoming completely brain dead. This was, of course, the fear my parents had as I sat for hours on end watching educational shows like Gilligan’s Island.
I’m with you, Ed. Down with computers and e-mails. They have yet to save a tree, and every office needs a geek just to maintain them. We never needed a geek to maintain paper!
In fact, the older I get, the more I think I’ll vote for the first Amish man who runs for president. Unfortunately, I won’t know what he looks like because they don’t want to be photographed. Good luck with the ‘kill the e-mail’ campaign. I am sure you are on the right track, and it has nothing to do with our age. These kids have just gone too far this time.
-Sam Baker, owner of Samuel Kent Baker Inc.
