Technology moves so fast, doesn't it? Especially where it concerns communication, something we all use every day.
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I feel like my own generation (X, if you're wondering) has pretty much given up on email, outside of work, whereas those younger never even got started on it.
That just leaves the Boomers, and some of their particularly spritely and savvy elders, tap-tapping away on their tablets, exchanging properly laid out and punctuated letters across the ether.
The rest of us are using messaging platforms to send things like, "How r u" and "Whats 4 dnr". I swore I'd never be one of these slovenly grammar swines, but even I have cracked. Who has time for question marks? (That one there just cost me at least three milliseconds.)
This means that I look at my email less and less, and with good reason: my personal account is at least 80 per cent rubbish.
It's not that unscrupulous companies have sold my details to advertisers (though there's a bit of that). In most cases I've given my details of my own free will - if you can call being forced into it whenever you make an online purchase "free will".
Then there's every sporting club, dance school, charity and service you've ever been in the vicinity of, passing on crucial information (that I never read, something that becomes apparent when I fail to deliver a child to an event).
Every now and then I have a crack at unsubscribing from all the promotional spam and organisational newsletters, but - even if I make a dent in it - it builds up again. Meanwhile, that message from my Mum gets lost in the flood.
I've long wanted to just use that email for this sort of dross and come up with another one for things I actually care about. But I've had it for years - imagine the pain of migrating the stuff I want to keep over to a new address. I just can't face it.
I'm starting to think there must be a better way to pass the really important information on. Maybe we could write on pieces of paper and get them delivered in hard copy. That would really get our attention.