We are living in the era of information, which suggests that communication methods nowadays are far different from before – more and more electronic communications appear and even replace the former traditional ways.

Email is considered as one of the milestones on the revolution of communications. It saves so much time and cost of message delivery that it’s impossible now to imagine living without it. However, as every coin has two sides, there are also drawbacks. There are five most significant limitations listed in our textbook, including misinterpreting the message and overuse of email, the two that I do have a personal understanding in.

For misinterpreting the message, it seems like everybody has made mistakes in this part. From literally misunderstanding the message,(such as omitting a short key word or taking 24 hour mode as 12 hour mode) to decoding the sender’s message in a wrong way since everybody’s perception is not the same, all these misinterpretation can impede the work process. On this level, face-to-face communication seems to be the most efficient and effective way of message delivery, in my personal opinion.

And as for the overuse of email, firstly, tons of “junk emails” are sent everyday. I receive dozens of junk emails or advertising emails in my daily life and, though on most occasions they don’t matter that much, however, sometimes they do hinder my efficiency during work as if I got the notification of new email I have to go to check if there is anything important or urgent. Also, with the rapid development of online services, many people take email as a easy way to ask questions, however most information that has been asked frequently are already posted online. Emails like this are another aspect of overuse which also dramatically affects work efficiency.

In summary, email is a strong and useful way of communication, but its drawbacks also affect the work negatively in many ways. As a result, both senders and receivers need to pay attention to these limitations hence building the most efficient and effective way of communication.

Reference:

http://www.dailynewsbin.com/news/trey-gowdy-caught-using-his-own-private-email-server/22908/