Merlin Mann published a post on 43folders that affirms something I’ve thought for a long time now:  that email manages to bring out sociopathic behaviors in people.  

I learned this fact being friends with school teachers.  In many school districts, teachers are given official email addresses, and parents are able to contact teachers this way with concerns they may have about their children.  In itself, this is pretty innocuous, and may even seem like a good idea, especially as schoolteachers and principals clamor about the lack of parental involvement.  Email, is, after all, a pretty convenient way to communicate.  But my experience has shown me that it’s more apt to bring out the sociopathy in people.  

If you look at all the ways people primary communicate, you can rate each one on a particular set of criteria:

1. Proximity.  Talking to someone face-to-face carries a whole different set of rules and consequences than calling someone on the phone does.  This also brings in questions of scope and how likely it is that the recipient will actually get the message.  
2. Statefullness.  Think of something like an instant message versus an email, whether or not timeliness is really a factor.   
3. Convenience.  The amount of effort that it takes to actually communicate.  

It might be simple just to rate each one on a scale of 1 -10, but it’s probably better to use something like -5 to +5.  Think about it this way, the more positive the number of each one is, the more apt you’re going to actually send your communication along, but if the value is negative, it will actually detract from the likelihood you’ll send it.  

Think about how this varies from situation to situation.  Sometimes you want to hear and have to manage the response from the opposite party, like deciding where to go for lunch, and sometimes you don’t.  The scale of each criterion really has to do with what you’re goals are in the course of the communication.  

Take the example of making a phone call to set up a reservation at a restaurant.  For proximity, the value is 0, since calling or another means will get you the same result as going in person.  In other words it’s a non-factor.  Statefullness gets a positive 5, since time is crucial for setting up the reservation.  Convenience gets maybe a 2.   While you don’t have to leave your house, calling on the phone might not be the simplest thing.  Maybe you have to deal with a trainee on the other end who will mess up the time or the name.  Or your name is difficult to pronounce, so you know you’ll have to go through and spell it four or five times over.  The overall value for calling in a phone reservation gets a 7.  

Think now if you were able to handle this through some kind of online reservation system.  You don’t have to worry about spelling your name, or even actually speaking to a person.  Provided you know that the message is received in a timely fashion (the statefullness stays at 5) you’ll probably be pretty apt to use it, hence the success of online based ordering for Papa John’s and Dominos.  Convenience jumps to a 3 or a 4, bumping the total to 8 or 9.  

Now say that calling in the reservation forced you navigate some mind-bendingly complex series of phone trees in order to get to a point that you can actually place the reservation.  Convenience drops to -1, or maybe it’s so bad that it drops to -5, the number drops to 0 and it’s not even worth the trouble to go to the restaurant.  

Merlin talks about the venting scenario.  All you’re looking for is to tell someone what you think.  You want to talk at them rather than have a back-and-forth.  You need something that’s immediate, distant, and convenient.  The convenience factor is what separates email from everything else.  Talking to someone face to face doesn’t work because it’s too proximal and gives someone the chance to defend themselves.  It’s inconvenient to go out of your way to meet them.  The phone is more convenient but the proximity still allows them to respond.  

Email provides this annoyingly efficient channel to vent, and I think the main factor is convenience.  You have this very fast, direct channel from your stream of consciousness to the work area of another person.  You get this power to invade their space without even being there or allowing them the chance to respond.  You get to sneak in, speak your mind, and leave, without any real interaction.  

Merlin makes the point that the inherent qualities of the system lend it to being abused.  That because it’s cheap and abundant that it’s more opened up to people who will abuse it.  People lacking a sense of etiquette.  Sociopaths.  I think that it needs to be narrowed down on that sliding spectrum of proximity vs. convenience vs. statefullness.  It’s not because it’s cheap or abundant, but more that it’s abundant and convenient and timely and doesn’t require that direct contact like a phone or meeting would.  It’s not that sociopaths prefer email.  I find that it allows people the temptation to easily engage in sociopathic behavior.