President-Elect Obama will probably have to give up email entirely, according to this article from the NY Times.
Apparently, the President’s communications are supposed to all be public, so there can be no private emails. There is the concern about security, too. My thoughts on this:
- Staying in touch with friends is important. The President of the United States is still a human being, and needs friends and social contacts. I wonder how it evolved that he became this isolated and untouchable person. I can’t imagine not being able to drop an email to a friend, or send a text message about a sports victory.
- Electronic communication is necessary to be effective. I think all fast-paced higher-ups in modern companies know this. That’s why Blackberries are mandatory at a lot companies. Imagine how much could get done if our government officials were encouraged to take advantage of technology.
- Too much news exists electronically to be ignored. Newspapers contain day-old news. News programs can only give highlights, and stories are often sensationalized. The electronic world is where more and more people are going for their real news. And the sources of information are endless. Can a president really know enough about what is going on in the world by getting brief summaries each morning?
I have Facebook and MySpace pages, which i only visit a few times a month. I don’t have a profile on any dating sites. I don’t Twitter. I’m not a super-blogger who influences the masses. But, even with these electronic deficiencies, my electronic identity is important to me. There are lost of people at work that i only know through electronic communications. Approximately 15-20% of my relationship with my boyfriend is electronic, through emails and IM. One of my closest friends and i probably have 60% or more of our relationship in IM. I wouldn’t want to give that up if i had a choice. So i guess i won’t run for President.
It sounds like being plugged-in is somewhat important to Obama, though. It will be interesting to see how he handles these issues during his presidency. Will he be able to modernize the office?
What about you – could you give up email?
November 28th, 2008 11:12 am
Nope. Maybe not so much e-mail, but I can’t give up the net. I am chastised on facebook for being on vacation and not leaving the computer behind, but i cannot do such things. I feel it is my duty to blog and whether people care or not, it is my way of keeping my memories — even if it’s online for the world to read. But it’s important to me and to put up with the taunts, well, I’ll endure
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