During the past few weeks and without any warning some of my email messages just disappeared. Emails I sent were never received, and messages sent to me never arrived in my inbox. Nobody could explain why that was happening, but it was very interesting to see and analyze the reactions of those sending or expecting emails from me.
It seems there was neither a virus nor an unauthorized access to my account caused the problem. Both my email provider and my Internet access providers said they were not responsible for the missing emails.
Whatever the case, several messages disappeared, including some important messages, such as proposals, preview of stories, translations, and even these commentaries, as well as messages to my friends.
It was interesting to see how people reacted when they realized they were not receiving messages from me or I was not responding to their emails. Almost everybody, with just a handful of exceptions, thought I was the reason, not the technology, causing the breakdown in communications.
Some people thought I was too busy to answer their emails. Other thought I had no interest in replying to their messages. Yet others assumed I was impolite. There were people who thought my company was no longer in operation. And somebody reasoned I had something against that person and therefore I decided not to answer his emails.
The truth is the technology failed, not me. But we so blindly trust our technology that we assume is omnipresent, all-powerful, unerring, indispensable, and irreplaceable. Therefore, if there is a problem or a mistake, we blame a person and not a machine.
It is easier to assume somebody (a person) is irresponsible, uninterested, or impolite than to think that perhaps the lack of communication is the result of a problem with the system we adopt to generate that communication or with a computer.
To blame me for not answering emails I never received is like trying to communicate with a person who only speaks Spanish and therefore we decide to speak louder, as if a louder voice will enable to person to suddenly understand our language.
If the lack of communication is caused by mutual monolinguism, nothing will be accomplished punishing the eardrums of the other person. The answer should be to find a new and alternative method of communication, for example, using a translator.
Any breakdown in communication among people cannot be solved using the same system that created the problem or trying to restore the communication at the point where it was lost.
In other words, if you want to restore the communication you need to create what Fernando Aveiga, PhD candidate at Iowa State University, calls “the third space,” that is, a new environment where communication can happen again, but this time at a new, higher level.
I believe the first step in creating a “third space” is to trust people more than technology. If the email is not working, perhaps we shouldn’t blame the other person. Perhaps he is innocent.