The ‘ignore me’ flag

You’re either extremely naïve or have never used email before if you think ticking the ‘important’ flag makes the email important. If you think ticking the flag makes any difference whatsoever to the chances that I’ll open your email and pay it any more attention than it deserves you are deluding yourself. Chances are, in fact, that I will pay it even less attention than it deserves.

I’m waiting for the day when an email application enables users to add other punctuation or iconographs instead of just the little red exclamation mark. I think the dollar or pound signs might be handy to indicate that the email contains some sort of bribe or maybe a picture of a little aeroplane to signify that the release includes details of an exciting trip.

When I see an email with an exclamation mark before the subject header it invariably means that the contents of that email are not worth reading.