In Korea, Email Is Only For Old People 439
_martini_ writes "This short article suggests that, in Korea, email is used only for formal communications, or by older, less tech-saavy generations, while IMs, blogs, and SMS has taken over as the primary means of day to day messages."
How about the Legal Community? (Score:5, Interesting)
if... (Score:5, Interesting)
korean spam killing korean smtp traffic (Score:5, Interesting)
naim (Score:2, Interesting)
Korean e-mail usage spammed to death? (Score:4, Interesting)
Wow, email lacks credibility... (Score:3, Interesting)
The one thing I like about email is that I can get to it when I need to. IM basically requires both parties to be at a computer and logged in at the same time. SMS solves that, I guess, but is it as reliable as email yet?
I'd try SMS if it weren't so much more expensive than email and if I weren't charged to recieve messages I didn't want. I suppose SMS in Korea is a lot cheaper.
Re:Greasy Kids Stuff (Score:3, Interesting)
A lot of the people I use it to talk with also use it as a "remote post-it" note. Got an idea? shoot it off, and they'll see it eventually.
overall, I'd prefer IM to just about anything else
Re:Credibility of E-mail? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Credibility of E-mail? (Score:2, Interesting)
AFAIK (Score:3, Interesting)
I realize you can't generalize based on your own anecdotal experience... but does anyone really send one or two-line emails anymore when IM is a hundred percent easier and instantaneous?
Re:There's also lots of stuff it's not good for (Score:1, Interesting)
Anyway, just like with a phone number if you know the number of a person that you want to talk to you call them. If not you leave a message to someone that can convey it to the person. Same thing pretty much should apply to emails and IMs.
As far as South Korea goes, man those are the people that had problems with youngsters (12-13 years old) being addicted to the internet, so no surprise there
Re:Greasy Kids Stuff (Score:3, Interesting)
The one thing I hate about instant messages is that they are so darned slow. Since you do not see the other person, they can take all the time they want without having those awkward pauses. It might be great for them, and I kind of like it on my side, but I am a very impatient person.
Should always specify North or South. (Score:5, Interesting)
Writing is not about email (Score:2, Interesting)
Now _that's_ writing. Forget about emoticons, let your emotions flow instead.
Re:Wow, email lacks credibility... (Score:2, Interesting)
Click here [icq.com] to download.
Re:Greasy Kids Stuff (Score:3, Interesting)
Them: "Stone?"
Me: "Yes?"
Them: "Check out this URL."
Why can't they just start out saying "Check out this URL" and realize that I'll check it out when I see the message? It's like they have to have your undivided attention to show you the latest hack animation. The worst of it is that those same types usually do this:
Them: "Stone?"
Me: (Not there or ignoring IMs or sound down or what have you.)
Them: (No message, but often bring it up the next time.)
It reminds me of people waiting to hang up the phone until after the voicemail has prompted them for a message. Why listen to the message just to hang up?
Re:Should always specify North or South. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Greasy Kids Stuff (Score:3, Interesting)
/Mikael
Re:There's also lots of stuff it's not good for (Score:4, Interesting)
If you submit a request to have a handholding session for how to use Power Point 5 minutes before someone else submits a request to fix their desktop that won't boot, you aren't getting processed first. The most important work gets done first. Someone having no access is more important than some training.
There is alos policy as to order of requests. Critical systems are first, then professors, then staff, etc (university here). This is departmental policy, not somehting we control. So if a student asks for something, and a professor asks for something, the professor gets help first.
Then there is skill. Not all the tech staff are skilled at the same thing. If you send in an advanced Solaris problem, I am not going to attempt to solve it simply because I am the one who saw it first. I'll hand it off ot the Solaris admin, who is likely to fix it right, and fix it efficiently.
Finaly there is time. If your job is something like installing 10 systems with an OS and apps, and another job comes in that is the quick update of a single app, the quick job gets processed first. Your job is a long endevor anyhow, there isn't any reason to make 5 minute work wait a day on it.
Logging is important in all this, which e-mail is good for. If you sumbit a request for 10 systems for install, we need to have a record of what you wanted on them. It's not going to happen in 10 seconds, there needs to be a reference for what was needed.
It's also important since, as I noted, the first person to read the ticket isn't necessiarly the one who does the job. You don't want second-hand miscommunication of information, you want an accurate record of what was requested.
Of course I think the main problem here is you have a self-superior incorrect picture of what a helpdesk is. This is not a reference to a group of people that sit behind desks and do nothing but take calls. This means the entire technical department, the manager, all the admins, and so on.
There is no gaurentee that any of us are at our desks at any time. If someone needs support on their desktop and I am the one who is best to provide it, I must go and support them. If an issue then comes in that I am uniquely qualified or at least the most qualified to deal with, it needs to wait until I get back.
Perhaps it's different where you work, but where we are, e-mail is essential. E-mailing a ticket to help is a great way to ensure your job is done fast and correct. Stopping the tech manager in the hall is a great way to ensure he adds it to his already overloaded plate and it may never get done.
Getting a person in realtime may provide more instant satisfaction, but it doesn't necessiarly get what you want done. Also, we have a phone line (and office to visit) for such requests, but that doesn't lessen the usefullness of e-mail.
Re:korean spam killing korean smtp traffic (Score:3, Interesting)
That being said, it can be interesting trying to get certain internet traffic *into* South Korea. There is a firewall around Korea, and it can suck for an American who is used to not having a whole lot of filters on their stuff. I've noticed this mostly with some games/their associated websites.
That and getting sent to www.google.co.kr automatically gets kinda annoying after a while.
Re:Greasy Kids Stuff (Score:2, Interesting)
I just feel sorry for all those old Korean Women, who are constantly being sent e-mails with english text they don't understand, and pictures of pills and some naked guy with a photoshopped penis.
Must be a great way for them to experience Western culture.
Re:Meaningless Criticism... (Score:3, Interesting)
it has the conversationality of IM without the annoying immediate demand for attention, and it has the non-time-critical-ness (?) of e-mail without making a bazillion e-mails in your box to have a conversation
Re:Should always specify North or South. (Score:2, Interesting)