We all say we want less email. But, do we really mean it? I think we’re saying: I want less irrelevance in my life. Much in the same way we complain about time-wasting meetings — instead of focusing on creating fantastic and nimble work sessions — I’m not sure we’re focusing on the right problem.

Readers of my recent column on email overload noted that advances in technology and social media can fix the email glut problem. InformationWeek executive editor Lorna Garey points out that until social media gets federated, we’ll continue to rely on email as a common ground for collaborators. Other readers also acknowledged that there are significant cultural changes needed beyond just turning off email notifications on social media platforms.

This is all great stuff. But the most telling discussion point came from InformationWeek’s John Foley, who wrote a cover story 10 years ago about personal information glut, the biggest culprit of which was, you guessed it, email. It’s 10 years later and we’re losing the struggle between incoming information and ways to handle that information.
Network Computing