The state of my Email Nation...

...is a Bizarre Love Triangle. Ha! Funny, right? It's a New Order joke! Band from the 80's? Just me? Okay, moving on.

This week I took stock of the state of my inbox.

If you’d asked me a couple of days ago how many emails a day I get, I would have said between 30 and 40. I think it’s a source of pride with people now. Our sense of self-worth can be measured in how many emails we get, how many Facebook friends we have or (ahem) how many people are following our blogs.

But let’s talk quality over quantity for a second.

In some instances it does quantity does matter. I need followers for my blog because I want to grow my community, but does it really matter how many emails I get in my private Hotmail account? Only if you’re desperate, right? Right! Time for some subscription weeding. Opt-outers HO!

Let’s get started:
• I have no disposable income right now, so see you later Old Navy, The Shoe Company, Bouclair and Amazon;
• I’m practically a shut-in (see above) so Hot Docs, Ticketmaster and Fallsview Casino are gone!
• No way am I buying a property or a car anytime soon so BOOYAH to Toyota, Smart Car and Allard Realtors!
• I never have and never will have any interest in the products or services of Zip, Apple, Extreme Fitness or Rogers’ Magazine subscriptions, so buh-bye.


Who I’m going to keep:
• a publisher who ONLY sends a reminder when an author I’m like releases a new book;
• TripAdvisor and Travelzoo: totally useless to me at the moment, but I can’t help it. I like to pretend to myself that I have a shot of taking a vacation on the beach in the near future.


Whew! Results:
On Friday I received only 19 emails. If I ignore my lingering pang of inadequacy, I have to admit it was freeing not to feel guilty over having to delete 20 emails without even opening them first.

Now all I have left are:
A) Actual emails from real people,
B) Messages from all the social network groups I signed up for.
Hm. I really should start pruning those… aww…but I just signed up for most of them. They are so new, so innocent! The poor little things have not had a chance to prove themselves yet! I will wait a month and then reassess who will get the axe.

Wow, it’s like Sophie’s choice, but for social media.


Update on my previous post: Why My Mother Won’t Read My Blog
• My Mom: Still not reading my blog. Still no intention to ever do so.
• My Boyfriend, Doug: Pretends to read my blog over my should as I’m proofing it, but he’s totally skimming. I can tell.
• My Best Friend, Jan: Joined as a follower! Yay Jan!