E-mail: Is It In You

I've become as dependent on my e-mail as the next person, but for me it's still an office and an occasional home activity. I consider traveling on business or pleasure an extension of my professional and personal lives so I'll include laptops in my mix of e-mail devices. I rarely, and I do mean rarely, use the Internet capabilities of my GSM network provider. I find it intrusive, but then I will also turn off my phone when I'm out camping, fishing, and mountain biking, checking once in a while for messages.Call me old-fashioned, but there are times when I need a break from the always-on world, not to mention the fact that my fly-fishing partner would never call again if my phone went off out on a river somewhere. So it gave me moment's pause when I saw the results of Outblaze's recent user survey of e-mail habits and expectations.

One of the questions asked of respondents was to envision what e-mail delivery methods we could expect in another 10 years. Half the respondents could foresee an e-mail capability commonly available in automobiles. OK, that would probably make it safer for us drivers in states that don't outlaw handset use in moving cars. But then they went 007 on me. Forty-two percent envisioned e-mail as a standard feature on wristwatches. I don't need that. I find it hard enough to tap out a message on a cell phone. I guess 8 percent of respondents also found the thumb-to-button interface a little cumbersome. They eliminated the manual approach altogether, predicting in 10 years time that we could opt to have e-mail chips installed directly our brains.

Could I have some privacy in here?