Why caution is necessary when using e-mail

We use Microsoft Outlook as out school e-mail system and overall I really like it. One of the nice features is that when you get a new message, a little balloon pops up in the corner of your screen, showing who sent the message, the subject and the first line or so of the note. Ordinarily this is a very handy thing. But there can be occasional problems.

For example, yesterday, after receiving some annoying news I e-mailed my school friends a quick note with the subject of “Damn.” It just so happened that my housemate Ethan was showing a movie to his class of 8th graders via his computer so his computer screen was largely projected onto the classroom wall for all to see. And then, into the corner of the movie, comes an e-mail popup that says “damn.” Isn’t technology great?