Share your email pain here
This week, I have been thinking about emails. It seems all modern and shiny, but did you know the first systems that sent messages between computers started in 1965? The email address as we know it today, with the @ symbol, was invented in 1972 and now more than 600 million people internationally use email.
The @ sign, otherwise known as the ‘at sign’ or officially the ‘amphora’ has lots of exciting names in other languages. The at sign is often seen as an animal: in Afrikaans and Dutch it is called aapstert, which means monkey’s tail. The Danes call it snabel-a or grisehale, which are elephants’ trunks and pigs’ tails. The French see it as a petit escargot (little snail), whereas Russians apparently have a more imaginative approach to these things and call it sobachka, which means little dog (not seeing it myself!). My favourites are the Thai ai tua yiukyiu, which means the little wiggling worm like character, and the Finnish miukumauk, which means the sign of the meow as Finns think the at sign looks like a curled up, sleeping cat! Bless.
However, the advent of email has brought with it a whole new load of social faux pas and potentially terrible situations to get yourself into – think of all those poor people who write a very rude/explicit/revealing/downright stupid email, and the recipient sees fit to forward it to their friends who forward it to their friends who forward it to their friends until you’re reading about it on the front page of the newspaper on the tube.
And then there’s email slang, something that makes me feel very old because I haven’t got a clue what they’re going on about. Y’know, all that LOL, LMAO, BRB, BTDTGTTSAWIO (prize for the first person to tell me what that stands for!). Here’s one that makes me laugh: AITR – adult in the room. Well, you can see what age group invented this one!
Can’t deny it, email has changed the way we communicate. Also the way we record our life – how are historians of the future going to know what we wrote to each other? Will they stumble across old email accounts in the way you might find a stack of letters?
I really like this great project set up by the British Library. During May 2007, The British Library is creating the first ever national archive of emails, which aims to record a snapshot of British life through emails, permanently archived for generations to come. They want everyone to send them emails they have received, in different categories:
1. Blunders – embarrassing revelations, a case of mistaken identity etc
2. Life changers - job offers, marriage proposals etc
< “um. I have a lady in my life these days. I do believe some of you have met her. You seem surprised because it’s fair to say I forgot to tell any of you. You
. That’s been keeping me busy for the last month. Hmmm I guess it’s more of a conversation thing so that’s all for now”
3. Complaints – public transport, poor customer service etc
A complaint is a very rare thing here in Laundry Land, so I can’t show you an example. However, here’s a useful website: http://www.howtocomplain.com/
4. Spam – the best (or worst) spam emails received
I really don’t need to post any here, everyone knows what Spam looks like! Post any good examples on the blog. Here’s a website about a spam experiment: and another one about people who like keeping spammers busy and here’s the official spam website for good measure.
5. Love and romance – romantic emails which tugged at the heartstrings
Well if you are going to write long and slushy emails – expect to get it published in the national press!
6. Humorous emails –funny forwards, office banter, jokes etc
The Laundry email, every week! Here’s one I got emailed the other day: while The Laundry of course has no political affiliations or opinions, this joke did make me laugh!
Bush and Cheney are at a restaurant for lunch. The waitress comes over and
asks what they will be having.
Bush says, “I’ll have a quickie.”
The waitress steps back in disgust and says, “Mr. President, I thought that
kind of piggish behavior went out with the last administration!”
She storms off and Dubya looks confused. Cheney shakes his head at the
president and says, “George, it’s pronounced QUICHE.”
7. Everyday emails – exchanging recipes, organising nights out etc
From my housemate:
“I’m going to invite some friends to our party, is there a theme or anything special, or shall I just suggest people turn up with a bottle of pop and some crackers?”. It was a good party.
8. News – good and bad news, births, illness, accidents etc
An email from a very excited friend:
“Guess what I’ve just bought… a car!!!! I am officially a car owner and I’m rather excited about it! I can’t pick it up until Saturday (I’m having a CD player fitted, naturally) but then i can go zoom zooming all around town and beyond! Technically I don’t really have anywhere to go in it but I’m hoping I will in the not too distant future”.
9. World around you – emails/views on topical events, news from around the world etc
From another housemate (TV programmes count as topical events!):
“Hope your day is going well. I am still recovering from last night’s This Life reunion. So bad it made me angry”. Took him days to recover from that.
10. Tales from abroad –long distance emails from far flung places
There’s a brilliant book called Don’t Tell Mum full of the emails gap year kids send back to their parents. Have a look at some extracts here.
I’m going to end with an email I was sent the other day when I asked someone why they were laughing. This someone will remain anonymous, for their own dignity.
Re: Why are you laughing?
“I’m laughing because
I haven’t shaved my arm pits for about three weeks – oops”
TTFN! Tell us all about your email wonders and blunders and don’t forget to send emails to the British Library project – email@emailbritain.co.uk