(September 9, 2001)

I e-mailed a friend of mine several weeks ago, and when I finally saw her the other night, I teasingly chastised her for not e-mailing me back (I wouldn't normally have cared, but I had asked for some particular information that she had and I needed). Shocked and bewildered, she asked, "What e-mail?" I further explained, and she said simply, "Oh, I probably haven't gotten it yet."

"Haven't gotten it yet?" I pondered, amazed at this seeming impossibility, "she hasn't looked at her e-mail in five weeks?" I wondered if she would leave her answering machine untouched for so long, or her postal mailbox. As it turns out, she didn't have a PC at home at all, and while she used to check e-mail at work, she had since changed jobs and had no e-mail or internet access at the new one. Her current method for checking e-mail consisted of getting in the car, driving to the Cobb County Library, waiting for a PC to become available, and then logging on to view messages that by that time were, like mine, almost assuredly outdated. Hearing this I had to remind myself once again that at last count, only about half (48.9%)of the homes in the united states even have internet access (Estats, Jan 2001, www.estats.com). Of course, based on advertising we see on TV and hear on the radio, you'd imagine that it's the half with money to spend (or at least the marketers think so). Every other ad seems to come with a .com attached, further adding to my (and many others') misled belief that everyone has e-mail, and everyone uses it (or should) just like the telephone. My wife and I often go to the movies with another couple, and often make all of the arrangements without ever picking up a phone receiver. "Doesn't everybody," I find myself thinking. Sadly, no - not yet. Complete internet penetration in American homes is still a few years off, and I begin to imagine what it must have been like to have a phone back when only half of the homes in the country had them. And to be impatiently waiting for your friends to get one so that you could call them up instead of mailing them a postcard or (gasp) actually going to visit them.

In any case, let this serve as a reminder to go easy on the folks that don't yet have e-mail, or worse yet (in my humble opinion) those that do but use it often enough to make it worthwhile. And to those of you who fall into that category, let me implore you - use it often enough to make it worthwhile! It really is as easy as the phone, sometimes more so because you can re-read what you're going to say before you say it (no telephone I know allows for that) and you don't have to worry about whether or not the recipient is home or not (even I still hate talking to the machines/ voicemail). If they are a regular user of email, you can be reasonably certain that they'll get your message and reply within an appropriate time frame. Those of us with always-on broadband connections (cable modem/ DSL/ etc) have a distinct advantage here since we can leave our e-mail client running as long as the PC is on, but even dial-up users who are e-mail aficionados will log in a few times daily to get and respond to messages.

Finally, if there's someone on your Christmas list who wants to have e-mail, but not the bother and expense of a PC, consider getting them an 'e-mail appliance.' No, this isn't a Maytag that messages the Downy factory when its out of fabric softener, but rather a small, simple device that attaches to the phone line and can send and receive text e-mail. Cute, small, and easy to use, most of these come with an inexpensive service agreement with a provider which gets you an e-mail address and access to their e-mail server. My favorite is the MailBug (www.mailbug.com), which sells for under a hundred bucks ($79.99 at amazon.com) and $9.95 per month service. Many similar devices exist, and it should be easy to find one that suits you (or the technophobe of your choice).

The next time you e-mail someone and they don't respond in due course, take a beat before you read them the riot act - find out about their e-mail habits and/ or access, gently encourage them if possible, and educate them about the wonders of this great technological marvel. Of course, if it's someone you already know to be an avid e-mailer and they still don't answer back, then that's just rude. Give'em hell.