What would it be like?
I honestly don’t think I could accomplish all the things that I do (and have) without the use of my e-mail. I’ve been thinking about that a fair amount lately as I’m finding I use my e-mail so incredibly much, every single day. And of course there’s been talk lately of things like social media taking the place of e-mail which has made me think about e-mail more (note: I completely disagree; social media serves a purpose, but it won’t replace e-mail–but that’s a topic for another entry, another time).
Now let me begin by explaining that I am an obsessive compulsive e-mail organizer. What does that mean? Well, I delete very few e-mails. Almost anything that I can possibly imagine being of any future importance, I save. My current e-mail account–my .mac account–I have been using since I got my first Mac at the beginning of 2007. Since then, I’ve accumulated some pretty remarkable statistics–and keep in mind I’m only a college student, I don’t even have a real job!
- I have e-mails arranged in 137 folders, not counting my Inbox, Drafts, Sent Items, Junk Mail, and Trash (in which case, it’s 142 folders, obviously).
- In those folders, I have approximately 7,000 e-mails organized.
- In slightly over two years, I have sent over 3,855 e-mails.
- Since last September (evidently the last time I emptied my trash), I have thrown away over 1,109 e-mails.
- In the past week, I’ve sent an average of 14.5 e-mails per day.
And that’s not counting my other e-mail accounts. My second most frequently used e-mail account (now, rarely used, but I used to use it a fair amount) is still archiving over 7,500 e-mails.
Needless to say, I depend a lot on my e-mail. And more so each and every day. Now not only do I use it for schoolwork, but I also use it for applications, correspondence with family and friends, networking, and even receiving the news (to a limited extent). For what it’s worth, I stopped all alerts from social media services–because I couldn’t keep with all the Facebook/Twitter/etc. e-mails coming–but I’m on those services multiple times a day anyway, so they simply weren’t necessary.
Anyway, how much do you use your e-mail? As much as me? More than me? Let me know, I’m curious.
October 20, 2009 at 5:37 pm
I only rival that amount of e-mail at work, sending to prospective students who are applying. I can’t think of sending that much in personal correspondence.