What's in a name.

From as early as Biblical times naming has been a means of establishing dominion. When we name something we define it, and we define our relationship toward it. But today naming is much more than "just" that. A catchy name is what can convert a bland and not particularly interesting observation into a marketable phenomenon.

And so it is with something like what would appear to be a perfectly logical and not particularly significant response to using e-mail. Without a catchy name it's pretty ho-hum, but call it Pre and Post Mail Tension, and you're really onto something - probably lots of talk radio programs and some morning television. I don't have any inside information on this, and certainly no way of verifying such a claim, but I'd venture to guess that at one point or another more than a handful of researchers have said to themselves:

hmmm. It seems that lots of people seem tense when they send e-mail

but left it at that. It took someone with a keen marketing sense, and a feel for names, to turn such an obvious, and obviously trivial, observation into a headline grabber.

Go to: Down and Out from E-mail.