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Can I Live Without Email?

Pat TaubPat Taub

GUEST POST by JANET WEIL

“It is possible that you do not receive many emails at all, in which case I am very jealous…”

“Could I live without email?” The question popped into my head as I was perusing “how to” computer books in the library.

Pat Taub, WOW blog, Portland, Maine

Pondering a life without email

Why would I even think of such a thing? I first heard about e (for electronic) mail during the Oliver North investigation by Congress in the 1980s, and I immediately wanted to access this special way to get even more mail! (For a history of email, go here. Fun fact – Queen Elizabeth was the first head of state to use email – in the 1970s!)

Pat Taub, WOW blog, Portland, Maine

Queen Elizabeth’s e-communications lasted several decades

Little did I know it would become an intimate part of my work and personal life. As a staffer for CODEPINK for several years, I read and responded to “info” email, which meant plowing through hundreds of messages a day, and viewing a lot of hate mail, mostly from angry boys and men. On the CODEPINK blog, Pink Tank, I wrote about that experience.

Like almost everyone, I got used to email for personal communications (though I resisted emailing family members in preference to phone calls and in-person visits), letters to the editor, political screeds, poetry, and more. I also was and still am required to give out my email address for petitions, registrations for courses and webinars, accessing my medical records online, and many other reasons, valid or not.

Pat Taub, WOW blog, Portland, Maine

A woman consumed with her daily email

In my 70th year, feeling the familiar burn of tendonitis in my wrists and the backs of my hands as I grind through dozens of emails a day, something a friend said years ago has come back to haunt me. Musing about plans for an eventual retirement, she wondered how she could “retire” from email.

Pat Taub, WOW blog, Portland, Maine

The author at her keyboard

Email is a powerful tool. Or it CAN be. Communications of all kinds are sent off quickly without stamps, envelopes, or the need for legible cursive handwriting. You can search it. Emails stored over years record the development of a friendship or a love affair. Or, when the relationship ends, the correspondence can be bulk-deleted in the twinkling of an eye – no tedious burning of letters in the fireplace!

It is indeed hard to imagine a life without it now.

But now that I am emailing while elderly – and my wrists, concentration, and eyesight are not likely to get better over time – I am considering the following:

Is email from any given organization adding value to my life, and if not, what then? As 2025 turns out to be The Year Musk Took Over the Federal Government, my email load has definitely increased with requests (that often feel like panicked screams) for me to donate, take action, get more involved, when I already often feel overwhelmed.

Pat Taub, WOW blog, Portland Maine

Feeling overwhelmed by the volume of email

How can I cut back on my emailing time? I have cut down on writing long emails, compared to years ago.

Can I plan for a “digital detox” later this year, and use the vacation reply feature more frequently to gently tell people I’m not available for emailing?

Can I send messages via “snail mail” more frequently? I certainly enjoy writing a note in a pretty card more than banging on my keyboard!

Soon after my mother’s death, I closed her email account, a sad but necessary task. I wonder how many of those reading this blog post have had to do this. Should the dying person, if physically and mentally able, take this task on as part of a conscious dying process?

But maybe that is a subject for future discussion. Interested? Just email me at …

Just kidding!

 

A retired ESL teacher and fired-up activist, Janet Weil resides in Palm Desert, California, with her husband. When not engaged in activism for justice for Palestine and effective responses to the climate crisis, and spending too many daylight hours on the computer, she enjoys traveling, visiting libraries, photographing desert flora, bowling, and spending time with friends and family.

Pat Taub is a family therapist, writer and activist and life-long feminist. She hopes that WOW will start a conversation among other older women who are fed up with the ageism and sexism in our culture and are looking for cohorts to affirm their value as an older woman.

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