video conferencing and email management

Although video conferencing has its flaws, I can understand why it remains a popular mode of communication. A sense of immediacy is created when you can actually see the person you're talking to. It makes them seem closer and somehow more real, even if the image of him/her is distorted or there are delays in the transmission of dialogue. In the context of traveling, or living far away from your family and friends, video conferencing offers a more personal way to keep in touch. It is always wonderful to hear someone's voice over the telephone, but I know that for me, seeing someone's face evokes a powerful emotional response, especially if you haven't spoken in a long time. Video conferencing is beneficial is for couples who have to suffer the many drawbacks of a long distance relationship. Communicating in this way forces the two people to give their full attention to the conversation since everything their doing is visible to their partner. It heightens the sense of connection to see someone's face and to hear their voice while communicating.

Text-based chat is the most banal form of communication. It has its uses and can be fun and convenient, but the depth of the conversation has its limits since so many visual and audio cues are missing. Users are often multi-tasking and using short forms over msn-style chat conversations. There's an understanding that very little committment is expected in this form of communication and, while some users might have great online chemistry with their friends, etc. through this medium, I try to restrict my use to very brief, almost utilitarian purposes - quick questions, last minute plan details, etc. A user who is traveling or living abroad, probably wouldn't leave an msn conversation with the same sense of fulfillment or connection that video conferencing might provide.

Managing an overload of email messages is a tricky task. Maybe some sort of email management software exists? Maybe someone should create some if it's not already available? Something like a de-cluttering, or cleaning lady, function for your inbox would be useful for many people. Professors, people in management, and students on LISTSERVs all face the problem of email overload; time is precious and no one wants to waste it on deleting unwanted messages from their inbox or replying to hundreds of emails. It would be good if you could have multiple inboxes: a separate one for each class that you teach, one for messages from colleagues, and then one for friends and family. This would not diminish the number of received emails, but, psychologically, it might be beneficial for the user because the messages don't all appear in one giant list. It would be like the folders feature, except that the messages would be sorted before arriving in one of the various inboxes, rather than having the user sort them after they've all arrived, and messied up, the same inbox.

This is definitely a very real problem for many users and I'm surprised there isn't some software available to help manage it. Maybe people with overloaded inboxes could hire graduate students as their own personal assistants who can reply to and manage the messages.