As someone whose typical work day feels too much like treading water as I process hundreds of emails in addition to my regular work, I completely agree with John Freeman. But then I wonder, can anything be done to stop it? I fear, for better or worse, we're heading towards a future of instantaneous communication and all the expectations that come with it.

The Tyranny of E-mail is a fascinating history of communication in addition to a critical rant against email itself. ( )

a vanilla complaint about the problem of civilization; freeman shanks us to death with polite nudges, slays us with affable hints and 'histories' of communication...lets us down gently that we've all gone insane. we're all turning into a globe of mal-adjusted, half-robotic, always connected borg-tards. for all the workaholics that can't seem to turn off their screens...well...it seems to me the singularity has already arrived for these fuckwits. ( )

The author has a definite bias against email, but makes some good points. I had already done many of the things to pull back out of the email trap and have gone back to much more face to face or phone meetings already. This book strengthened my resolve to do so.

It is quite a short read though. Large print and a short book. Some interesting history leading up through the telegraph, history of the post office, and literacy. ( )