Blog: Claudia Imhoff

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Survey says: Americans are hooked on email

In case you haven't heard, we Americans love our emails. So much so that we check them in the bathroom, in church, and even while driving... So says a new survey sponsored by one of the biggest email providers, America Online.

The article continues that the average emailer in the US has 2 or 3 email accounts and spends at lease an hour every day reading, sending and replying to emails. For 41% of the respondents, they are so hooked on email that they check their email boxes as soon as they get out of bed in the morning. I don't know about you but that is usually not the first thing I have to do in the morning!

So here is a test to see if you are addicted: See how long you can go -- hours, days, weeks? -- without checking your email box. For those surveyed, a large percentage couldn't wait 2 or 3 days without checking -- and that included even during vacations! Well, are you addicted?

Another interesting snippet in the article was that all that email has lead to regrets, Almost half of those surveyed said that they would have like to have the ability to "unsend" a message they sent by mistake. I count myself in that category.

For those of you determined to stop the addiction, here are some tips from the article:

1. Resolve NOT to check email after a certain hour of night.
2. Stop the interminable back and forth by picking up the phone and call the person.
3. Keep track of how many messages you send out in a day.
4. Go without email one day a week.

OK -- those are at least 4 steps in your 12 step program. For me, I gotta go. I have a zillion emails that came in while I was writing this...

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