I was thinking, today, about sending Philip Greenspun an e-mail message regarding his photojournals (see the links section below). They are beautiful and interesting pieces of work and I thought I might tell him as much. Something struck me about this: Why would I presume to send someone I don't even know an e-mail out of the blue. I would never call, for instance. Why is e-mail different?
I can't really answer this question but I thought I might go ahead and pose a few theories. It may have something to do with detachment. When I telephone someone I am demanding their time and I will hear their voice. It is intimate and mutual. E-mail, on the other hand, does not tend, at least for me, to have that same level of contact. Additionally, e-mail is even less synchronous than a phone call.
A second thought: perhaps e-mail is regarded as being "throw-away". By this I mean there is a perception of e-mail as being easily processed and disregarded as necessary. If this is the case it would be terribly unfortunate. It's the cry wolf scenario. I tend to send, what are to me, very important e-mails and want them to be read by their intended recipients.
A final thought: perhaps the pace and connectedness of modern society has changed ideas about intruding in people's personal lives. I don't know about this one. It seems a little far-fetched.
Anyway... just something I have been thinking about today.
As a random aside, I ended up sending him an e-mail to request permission to post one of his photographs.
Woot! I've got a guest musical recommendation for your spinning PLEASURE. My esteemed sibling weighs in with Basement Jaxx's _Remedy_. I've given it a cursory listen and am enjoying it so far. Very cool sound. I'm going to give it a few more listens before coming to a final verdict.
The gentlemen of the geekhaus viewed the original Superman movie last night. Damn. Funny stuff abounds.
Ok, I have two votes in favor of adding a comments system to the headspace.... that's good enough for me. I will get that put together this evening. Perhaps people will actually use it... :)
That reminds me. I have been negligent. I have two pieces of correspondence, one from KAH, the other from CLM, that I have asked for and received permission to post. I _will_ do so, I promise.
I agree that it is odd at best to send someone you don't know an email when you wouldn't call them to begin with. But then again, when you don't know the person you're emailing you don't know what to expect back, but there is less chance of anything negative coming back from a randomly sent email to someone you don't know. Right?
For instance I sent an email to Tyco from Penny Arcade and not only did he email me back, but he actually seemed to be a halfway cool guy. I didn't know what to expect, but it was at the very least a good experience.
So with all of that said it brings a thought to mind. If you wouldn't call someone you know, but you would email someone you don't know, why can't we take all phone calls where people are trying to sell you crap you don't need and have that go into email instead? At least then I could check the list of people it's sent to and filter accordingly.
It's just a thought...