Tim Harford writes that his New Year’s resolution is to no longer take the bullying of his inbox. As a Gen Z myself, I’ve resolved to fully embrace the bullying of my email this year (Opinion, Spectrum, January 8).
I’ve grown up with the luxury, or as some would argue perhaps the curse, of having a variety of correspondence platforms. These include iMessage, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram and the deplorable Gmail. Having been exposed to all of these interfaces early on, I quickly determined my favourites, or rather, my favourite: iMessage.
The result has been that over the years, I have left far too many emails sitting unread. More so, I have shared far too many PDFs via iMessage, and have bookended far too many texts with “Dear”, and “Cordially”. This year, I’ve resolved to check and answer my personal email with as much diligence as I do my text messages, and use email rather than text when appropriate. I liken Harford’s cold-callers to my automatic newsletter subscriptions as well as LinkedIn notifications, and I plan on sorting through those as well.
While Harford suggests separating inboxes to prioritise certain mail, I plan on doing the opposite. I will sort through all notifications, by reminding myself that important and unimportant messages alike come through the same inbox, as do those notifications that my inbox would be better served without.
There will be no streamlining of inboxes. There will be no attack and defence strategies. Simply a commitment to answer and send email as well as I do texts. And based on the speed with which my fellow Gen Z friends answer text messages relative to that with which they answer email, I am assured that I am not the only one who should be making this commitment in 2022.
Leyla Winston
Los Angeles, CA, US
Letter: It’s time Gen Z answered emails with the same alacrity as texts
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