You must give up one or the other - just play along with me now - so how do you intend to work and live the rest of your life?
Without the use of e-mail? Or without access to the Web?
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Both will continue to exist; that's important to consider. And only you will be giving up one or the other. Not your friends,
family, business associates or competitors. This is an academic exercise so there will be no cheating allowed. No instant
messaging, text messaging or Web mail to substitute for e-mail. And no borrowing someone else's browser or hiring a personal
valet to do your surfing.
Which one are you going to give up - and why?
Me? I'm giving up e-mail. My job would be unimaginably difficult without e-mail, but near impossible without access to the
Web. Most of the communicating I do by e-mail could conceivably be accomplished by telephone (and what are those silly envelopes
with stamps called again?). But I don't see any way to do my job without the Web, even though I'm old enough to have done
it back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
Last week I put this unpleasant choice to the members of my e-mail list, the Buzzblog Brigade, and as you might expect, the
Web pretty much kicked e-mail's backside - even though a sturdy minority put up a stirring defense of their in-boxes. No surprise
there. What was surprising, however, was the number of respondents who cited the potential benefits of losing their e-mail
privileges and the smaller subset that couldn't bring themselves to choose; it was almost as if they feared I had the power
to actually take away their toys.
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