With the advent of email, the need to write a letter, place it in an envelope, verify and write the address, place a stamp, and post it – it all became more or less obsolete. Suddenly, the cost of sharing thoughts has very nearly gone away. There’s an opportunity cost, in that you could be doing something else as you write or record your viewpoint. But after, it’s a simple “click, send”.
This democratizes the marketplace of ideas, allowing for more voices to be heard. It also amplifies the potential impact of an idea, as it can be shared instantly with a larger audience. This has the potential to shift power dynamics and open new doors of opportunity.
What it also does, though, is causes the floodgates to be opened, and inboxes everywhere overflow. Sure, we can unsubscribe. Over and over and over again. However, even if we unsubscribe from every email list we’re on, we’re still going to get a lot of emails. So, while unsubscribing from emails we don’t want can help, it’s not going to solve the problem of all these emails.
That was a long way just to say that I simply can’t keep up with them all.
Michael's Musings 