On a recent Sunday morning, one student wrote to a e-mail list, “In a drunk stupor I misplaced my phone,” requesting that everyone keep their eyes open for it. The request worked: she recovered her phone the same day.
Three programmers created E-mail list, an electronic mailing list program, in 1984. Since then, the term “e-mail list” has come to describe any e-mail-based mailing list application.
According to Jerry Maguda, computer operations specialist in ITS, there are over 1,000 e-mail lists in existence on campus, although not all of them are actively used.
Despite their obvious utility, listservs can become objects of annoyance or conflict to many students. Most can attest to a time they were irritated to discover inboxes inundated with e-mail list messages.
The situation worsens when an ongoing dialogue is transmitted via e-mail list messages. Ben Seretan ’10, current president of WestCo, recalls an incident last year when an etymological debate arose over the use of “sissy” after an accusation that WestCo was a “sissy” dorm due to its earlier quiet hours.
“This was not the sort of thing I’d like to see happen on the e-mail list,” he said.
Protocol for e-mail list behavior is often ambiguous or undefined, causing some students to hesitate before sending a message to a e-mail list.
Mary Lauran Hall ’10 posted a request for the return of her missing journal on the WestCo community e-mail list. She got the journal back, but was unsure if she should notify the WestCo community by sending out another potentially congesting e-mail.
“Would that be an abuse of the e-mail list?” Hall said.
Rachel Shopper ’10 especially dislikes when one-on-one conversations are brought into the public sphere.
“I am pissed off when people respond to an individual’s request via e-mail list,” she said.
Anna Johnsen ’08 agreed, citing her experience with the senior woodframe houses e-mail list.
“I don’t think there’s been that much abuse,” she said. “But my biggest complaint is that everyone gets these cutesy back-and-forths between people that are personal.”
According to Hannah Dreier ’08, a particularly obnoxious incident occurred over the senior woodframe e-mail list. She recalled a proliferation of e-mails in response to postings about the availability of tickets for the recent MGMT concert.
Many hit “reply all” when responding, so all students on the e-mail list received e-mails regarding tickets, plans, and beverage consumption.
“It was a phenomenon,” Dreier said. “Some people got really outraged, some sent out complaints, and some sent out parodies of complaints.”
All this traffic ended up in each e-mail list members’ inbox.
E-mail lists may be useful tools for student organizations that need fast and efficient communication—hence, the e-mail list’s invention. But, as Seretan pointed out, sometimes it is used for less practical purposes.
“I don’t think it’s a good medium for feelings,” he said.
Nora Hansel ’11 is a member of Fem Net, and utilizes the group’s e-mail list frequently.
“[It’s] a way for us to have conversation in between meetings,” she said. “In today’s activism, we have to come up with new ways of organizing.”
As technology streamlines methods of communication, formats such as e-mail lists are a part of a student’s life. Seretan relates the use of e-mail lists to Natty Bumppo’s revelation in James Fenimore Cooper’s “The Last of the Mohicans.”
“The written word lets the author shirk accountability,” Seretan said.
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