SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 16 (Reuters) -- E-mail has far eclipsed hand-delivered
letters in sheer volume, and there are even signs that it's pushing other kinds
of communication out of the way as well.
A series of studies released this week painted a picture of a public often
overwhelmed by the flood of electronic messages flowing into their computers,
but eager to use it at home and on the job.
It remains the killer application of the Internet, even as new
applications grow. A study by the Stanford Institute of Quantitative Study of
Society being released on Wednesday found that 84 percent of Internet users said
they used e-mail.
Much of it just goes unanswered, said the Novato, Calif.-based Brightware
Inc., which makes software for handling corporate e-mail. In its annual survey
about how quickly companies respond to e-mail messages, Brightware found
companies falling further behind than a year ago in responding to simple
information requests.
Most American workplaces have e-mail services, and using the corporate e-mail
system for personal use is considered OK by a majority of employers, according
to a survey from Irvine, California-based Thomas Staff, a professional services
and software firm.
"Companies feel that as long as employees are getting their work done,
they have no big concerns about it," said Douglas Slack, president of Thomas
Staffing.
Indeed, some companies even view personal e-mail as an educational force,
since it boosts employees' technology skills and leading to a more productive
workforce, said Slack.
But in larger companies more familiar with the Internet there are more
reservations about use of the corporate computers for personal messages, he
added. Smaller companies may just be unaware about how pervasive and time
consuming it's becoming.
The growth of the Internet in the workplace "is much bigger than we
expected," said Slack. Thomas surveyed 850 Southern California companies, using
Market Research Associates, and found that 85 percent use e-mail. That compares
with previously reported national averages of 50 percent to 60 percent, said
Slack.
The Stanford survey took a broader look at how the Internet is changing
people's lives, and found that it's becoming a pervasive influence at home as
well.
"Internet time is coming out of time viewing television but also at the
expense of time people spend on the phone gabbing with family and friends, or
having a conversation with people in the room with them," said Professor Norman
Nie, whose sampled included 4,000 adults in 2,000 homes.
The growing use of the Internet might be helping people stay in touch who
are long distances apart, he said. But it also could be hurting the "quality" of
interaction, and leading to more isolation.
"E-mail is a way to stay in touch, but you can't share a coffee or a beer
with somebody on e-mail or give them a hug," Nie said. "The Internet could be
the ultimate isolating technology that further reduces our participation in
communities even more than television did before it."
While e-mail is the biggest use of the Internet, more than half the people
who use the network engage in some kind of information searching, reading or Web
surfing, the Stanford survey found.
Internet stock trading has gained a high-profile in the stock market's
rally of the past year, but it's not much of a factor in most peoples' lives.
Only 4 percent said they use the Web to trade stocks, and just 7 percent use it
for banking. One in four buy things over the network, about the same as number
who use "chat rooms," inhabited by 22 percent of users.
While Internet e-mail is becoming as commonplace as the telephone, there
are still dark fears about threats lurking on the network.
After a year in which computer viruses and hacking incidents became front
page news, companies are far more worried about outsiders abusing their computer
systems than about employees misusing them. Seven out of ten companies said they
are more concerned about security than they were a year ago, and two-thirds have
written policies about e-mail.
Brightware said that more companies should have a policy of responding
quickly to e-mails, or customers may become angry about being ignored.
"With over 300 million e-mails being sent per day in the US, I'm deeply
concerned that some major corporations seem to be ignoring this global
phenomenon," said Brightware Chief Executive Chris Erickson. His survey found
only one-in-three of Fortune 500 companies responded quickly and accurately to
simple queries, like where the company is located. "There's no excuse for that,"
he said.
