It is not often that I pan a book, but there is some serious laziness associated with Freeman's work here. This book should win recognition for the gluttony of random statistics that are pulled out of thin air and impossible to validate. There are so many instances of disconnected data to back up an already tired idea -- we use e-mail a lot in this society? Really? -- that they are simple to find by doing a random scan through the book. Let me just see, oh, here is one -- "By some estimates, 85-...

An interesting subject to read about but I found the book more of a rant about/against modern technological advances than anything else.

Practical guide to mastering e-mailSend dramatically fewer e-mails and everything else will get better, says writer and editor John Freeman. Before explaining that promise, he offers a nostalgic look at the history of mail, starting with clay tablets. He covers the changes that each new burst of speed caused along the way. Then he describes the way that today’s employees are ruining their attention spans, productivity, relationships and even their health with e-mail overload. In fact, he says, m...

I never thought that email was tyranical. Over the years I have just gotten used to email interruptions. On my desktops I even run 2 copies of gtalk so that I get an immediate popup when new email arrives.Now that I have read this book I am thinking more about how to get work done in blocks and not get stuck in an email loop. The book feels padded a bit but is still an interesting read. Mobile email will only make email worse in the future. The book didn't deal with IM which surprised me as this...

What I like : was expecting a thorough bashing of email, but pleasantly surprised with the history of evolution of communications over a period time which was covered in detail covering half the bookWhat I didn't like : nothing as such...good read . But towards the end, it is on predicted lines and gets a feeling of being dragged...5stars for first half and 4 stars for second half

"By parceling our days into smaller and smaller units, by giving us the impression that we can reach all people, at all times, e-mail is helping to put this cycle of overworking and impatient desire for gratification into hyperdrive. We work to live, the saying goes, but when work takes everything, what's the point?"With a provocative title like that you need a stable argument but Freeman doesn't build a case as much as he merely points out obvious truths. His argument, then, becomes self-eviden...

I heard the author speak on public radio, and was compelled to read this book! Things I liked:- The reminder that communication hasn't always been this way, and that it's not necessarily ideal!-I thought this was a great observation: "Brain imaging is beginning to show that when we get a big reward--such as a jackpot payout--dopamine, the hormone and neurotransmitter, floods the anterior cingulate, the part of the brain that appears control mechanical functions such as heartbeat and breathing, a...

3.5 stars. The correct title of the book is just The Tyranny of Email, and even that title is a little strong. Freeman's not a Luddite, trying to extract humankind from the internet. He's trying to examine just how much the advent of email has affected the way we communicate, think, and feel.I started reading this book while shopping for a new smartphone. While reading the first half of the book, which is mostly a history of written communication, I was ready to get a top-of-the-line smartphone

I use blinkist book summaries when a book only halfway interests me, and based on that summary and the reviews I will not be investing the time into the entire book.Email might be doing 'evil' damage to our interpersonal communications, I get it.Communications used to be slow, expensive, and perhaps more thoughtful. I get that too.But, email is not going away other than when it is replaced by a form of communication that my generation will find even worse.Onward.

This book should be required reading for everyone who works in any corporate setting, at minimum, and frankly, everyone else whose job (or even life) require that they are tethered to an inbox for any part of a day. I found time to read this book in almost a single sitting, only by ignoring my email - and then went back to it with an entirely new perspective on how we as a society have become so dependent on this technology, and how to avoid its tyrannical reach.

Reading this book gave me anxiety while explaining to me why email gives me anxiety; it also made me nostalgic for the time before email. I felt this way when I arrived at college, too, right before everyone first got email addresses. I wanted to keep writing letters! Obviously that didn't work out so well for me. I think it's a big loss, though. I think communicating now is almost *too* easy, and it's not necessarily even communicating, since the risk of misinterprating tone without visual or a...

It's hard to ignore the irony—as the Internet becomes increasingly embedded in every aspect of our existence, print books about its effects on users proliferate. Some cast the Internet's influence as devastating, destroying the very definition of humanity; others speak in utopian superlatives about its power to unite everyone everywhere. John Freeman avoids both extremes, even as he does warn about the dangers of wholesale capitulation to The Tyranny of E-Mail.He frames his argument in its histo...

The vocabulary and sentence-building capability of this author made me swoon. This was not the type of book you expect to be gorgeously written, but it most definitely was!The story started out with great momentum tracking the history of communication from clay tablets to the telegraph to today's beeping smart phones. And it was all great! The author also offered some helpful tips that even I, a recent convert to email haterism, could take to heart in shaping the type and amount of communication...

Another book on "philosophy of technology" and how technology affects the human behavior and human brain... To be read with the book by Nicholas Carr "The Big Switch: Our New Digital Destiny" and the two articles "Is google making us stupid", http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807..., and "The autumn of multitaskers", http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200711... "Neuroscience is confirming what we all suspect: Multitasking is dumbing us down and driving us crazy." An interesting paragraph in the chap...

This was like an advance essay on 'Advantages and disadvantages of Technology' I used to write in 7th grade. Not taking anything away from the author, it's just the right amount of information you need to have yourself cut back on social media, where we constantly refresh pages and newsfeeds. Like a good old research paper, it starts from the beginning of ways of communications among men, on to our modernised lives, and then some advice on how to control it. Recommended for anyone who is addicte...

What I've read so far is great. Do you know the average worker sends or receives 200 e-mails every day? Every day! I believe it, oh boy, do I! I have had times where I've been gone one day and have 89 new messages in my in box. E-mails can decrease efficiency and communication. I get e-mails from the people that sit less than 10 feet from me because we all want it in writing to CYA. Blerg! The author gives suggestions at the end of the book on how to end the tyranny. Not that I skipped ahead or

I wish I read this 10 years ago (if it was published then). My generation relies to heavily on the digital world. Before you know if we won't know how to react face to face. I've been around situations where this happens already. If you don't have something social to talk about, there is a solid chance of silence in the room. At this time, I have been off Facebook for 3.5 years. I've learned to appreciate conversation over the phone and in person more than electronically. This books helps unders...

Decent extended essay on how we've let e-mail take over every waking hour: "It has encouraged flotillas of unnecessary jabbering, making it difficult to tell signal from noise. It has made it more difficult to read slowly and enjoy it, hastening the already declining rates of literacy. It has made it harder to listen and mean it, to be idle and not fidget."Of course, I checked my e-mail several times while reading this book.

This was a super interesting book - a history of how we humans have communicated via the written word. From prehistory scribbles to the development of the printed word, to the postal service and now email, this book takes us through the ways in which how we say something affects what we say, who hears it, how fast they receive the information and how all of that affects our understanding of time and space. It really is cool. And the end has some VERY practical tips for how to take control of you...

I get it, but unfortunately there is a 'the-sky-is-falling-!!' kind of feel to this book. I agree that the over use of technology is kind of undermining our society; just look at texting-while-driving (not to mention watching DVD's while driving). The author does concede that there are benefits to a lot of the technology available out there. I suppose this would do more for me if I were more of an email/internet addict.