Tuesday, November 22, 2005

When E-mail Goes Wrong

by Benji Raymond



A couple of months ago I had my first major conflict with technology. I joined an e-group where members of my small but growing community gathered together and corresponded via an electronic mailing list. All was going well and the group was growing quite rapidly. I enjoyed reading the replies of others but very rarely sent my own thoughts and ideas. Early one morning I awoke as I often do at around 4am where I tend to consciously sleep walk and check my e-mail. I noticed a response in the e-mail group which made me laugh, not in the sense of a joke, but at the radical nature of one of the members. I thought I would share the humour with a friend of mine and decided to copy and paste the email and send it along with an interesting remark about the opinion expressed by one of the members. I would very much like to put my error down solely to my sleepy state, but unfortunately the error rests squarely in my hands. I mistakenly sent the e-mail to the entire member list. Things could have been worse, but Warren Buffet's saying, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it," hit home.

A short while ago an e-mail company released a program that provides the ability to delete e-mails you personally sent to someone else, provided you do so before the person has checked their e-mail (and is on the same network). I can understand the essence behind the program. The basis of e-mail is its speed and ease and as a consequence we sometimes mistakenly send an email to the wrong person or get a figure incorrect and may wish to change the error before the recipient reads it. Nevertheless, while I am sure that you would safely assume that I would be in favour of this idea (after reading the opening story), I am surprisingly very much against it. The responsibility of a person's actions should rest solely upon that person and while the subject of forgiveness is a different topic, a person should have to deal with the consequences of their direct actions. The prospective option of backing out of a corner when a person sends an unpleasant or bitter e-mail will ultimately limit the awareness and consciousness an individual ought to always strive for.

The consequences of my blunder will potentially remain with me for weeks or months to come. At the time of the incident the anger I held at myself was overwhelming. I didn't know it then, but I had learnt one of the most important lessons in my life. There is no doubt that not every one will always agree with what you have to say or that you will never hurt anyone. Nevertheless, there is a distinct difference between consciously and unconsciously hurting an individual. The option to back out of a dark corner is great to have, but the ability to always strive to limit the potential hurt is even better.

A Long December (Poetry)