When I look at my inbox on my Mail app on any particular day, I get from 5 – 50 unread emails depending on how long it has been since I last checked. You can tell how many are unread because next to the word “Inbox” is an oval with a number in bold print. That number represents the number of unread emails in your box. As you go through and read those emails, the number of unread mails listed decreases.
Now I happen to be obsessed with keeping that unread mail number down to zero, therefore I read my emails frequently. My mail program also helps on my computer, as it sorts those emails into categories, like Storytelling, Family, Friends, Books, Writing, Language, Junk… well, you get the idea. This way when I get an email, it presorts itself into a category, so I can prioritize which ones seem important to read first.
A lot of the emails that I get are from Storytelling listservs (storytelling groups I belong to). Since these emails usually are threaded discussions they can pile up every day and may also account for the large number of emails I get.
Being obsessed as I am about reducing the number of emails that I have unread, makes it very frustrating when I see mail programs of friends and family with unread mail numbers in the thousands. “WILL YOU JUST MARK THEM ALL AS READ, IF YOU’RE NOT GOING TO READ THEM!” I’m sorry, did I just say that out loud. It seems they don’t care how many unread emails there are. They only read the important ones.
Managing email is a lengthy process if you don’t keep up with it. There are the shopping ads from every site you happened to sign on to. The political ones and charity ones that you also happened to donate to.
Then there are also the phishing ones and spam ones that you have no idea how you got on their list. One of my recent favorites was one from a bank that I have no account with and started with the words, Dear costumer, They wanted me to click a link to verify my account information. Needless to say, I didn’t click.
Some suggestions and advice for those of you that doubt the veracity of an email.
1) Never click on a link in an email, unless you can verify it is from a person you know. Usually, if they write something before the link that clearly shows they know you and are interacting with you, you might consider it. If it just a link, then don’t even think twice.
2) If it is from an organization or company that you do know, again, don’t click on the link. Go on the web directly to their website and log on and see if the same message or issue is mentioned.
3) Another thing to do is click on the email address in the From: field, usually the top line in the message. On my mail program, it has a little down arrow next to the name of the sender. Clicking on the down arrow shows the email address that it is being sent from, which may not be the same as the one in the From field. So if the From: field says Apple Computers, Inc. and you click on the arrow and what comes up is “gonnascrewyou@giveusyourmoney.com, it’s probably a good guess that this is a phishing attempt. btw if you do get what looks like a phishing attempt from Apple (which has happened to me a number of times, telling me my account was frozen) forward that email to “reportphishing@apple.com” No explanation is needed.
And lastly, 4) when you are asked to sign onto websites, instead of putting your actual email address, add a + sign and the website that your signing onto’s URL before the @ sign. For example, if my email address was JohnDoe@msm.net, and you were registering on myfixit.com’s website, you would write that your email address was: JohnDoe+myfixit.com@msm.net. Any email that they then send you, will still come to you, however, if they share the email with other companies, that email you wrote down will also come to you with the + sign will show up in the To: field of those emails. It’s a good way to discover if a company is sharing your email address elsewhere. You should know that some sites do not accept that kind of email address as legitimate, so you are left with using your actual one. The other problem with doing it this way is that you have to remember the email you put down when you sign into their site the next time.
As an alternative to that last suggestion, you can try and click on the do not share this information with partner companies, which are on most registration forms. Or you can create a new email address that you only use for companies and products that you register or just create one that is only given to friends and family.
As we proceed into the future email will become a way of the past. It has for the most part already and has been replaced by texting. Who knows what method of written communication will be next on the horizon. I’m personally looking forward to thought clouds. You want to communicate in writing to a friend, all you have to do is think about what you want to say and it immediately forms in cloud writing in front of the person you’re sending it to. Since they will be wearing the specially coded glasses that can read messages from you, only they can see it. To the rest of us, they are just clouds in the sky. That would be cool. And no unread mails. If you don’t want to read it, just blow it away.
Those are some really useful tips, especially point no. 4. I have a separate email that I use for signing up and registering and a different one for friends and family. I love your idea of thought clouds. It sounds fun and really interesting.