You must have heard of Daniel Goleman? He is the renowned author of “Emotional Intelligence” which was on The New York Times bestseller list for a year-and-a-half; with more than 5,000,000 copies in print worldwide in 30 languages.
Read what he has to say about email in the New York Times.
Email undoubtedly has many advantages -” it’s quick and convenient, democratizes access and lets us stay in touch with loads of people we could never see or call. It enables us to accomplish huge amounts of work together”
However, it can never capture the emotions of the sender as well as a personal interaction can.
“One reason for this is that we tend to misinterpret positive e-mail messages as more neutral, and neutral ones as more negative, than the sender intended. Even jokes are rated as less funny by recipients than by senders”
As Professor Clay Shirky an adjunct professor in New York University’s interactive telecommunications program puts it “Social software” like e-mail “is not better than face-to-face contact; it’s only better than nothing.”
Think about this before you dash off an email to the guy in the next cubicle or to the girl down the corridor.