Email Users Research Articles

"You've Got E-Mail!" ... Shall I Deal With It Now? Electronic Mail From the Recipient's Perspective

This article considers the nature of e-mail from the recipient's perspective-what the seemingly free and easy communication really costs the recipient. Information gathered by electronic monitoring software is shown to be at odds with the results of an online survey of e-mail users' perceptions of their e-mail experience-users drastically underestimate the disruptive effects of e-mail. The conclusion is that the constant monitoring of e-mail actually reduces productivity and that there is a need for increased power, control, and awareness on the part of the e-mail recipient to ensure that e-mail remains a tool rather than a tyrant. It is necesssary to alert the user of the true cost of e-mail alerts.

Using stated-preference data to measure the inconvenience cost of spam among Korean E-mail users

E-mail is an efficient communication tool, but at the same time it is an efficient vehicle for Internet pollution in the form of spam—unsolicited, bulk e-mailings. Spam is a global phenomenon, and debate about possible means of controlling it is lively. Spammers impose a negative externality on users. The volume of spam-type e-mail sent is above the social optimum and thus produces dead-weight. To solve the spam problem and evaluate spam-control measures, one needs to measure the disutility experienced by e-mail users who receive spam. The current study employs conjoint analysis of stated-preference data to estimate e-mail users’ overall inconvenience cost attributable to spam. The results show the inconvenience cost of spam to be about 3.067 won (US$ 0.0026) per spam message.

Testing an extended model of IT acceptance in the Chinese cultural context

Research on technology acceptance and diffusion is critical, providing insights into how organizations can manage the adoption and use of information technology. With globalization, it is important to understand IT adoption in other cultures. The primary purpose of this study is to enrich the understanding of IT acceptance by extending a U.S.-based research model to a different culture, namely China. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of e-mail users in 30 Chinese organizations. Structural equation modeling was used to validate the model and test the hypotheses. We draw comparisons between our findings and existing studies, and discuss theoretical and practical implications.

Personality Trait Based Simulation Model of the E-mail System

Within the area of criminal and terrorist social network analysis, there is little research being done on analysing the communication behavior of criminal and terrorist groups. In this paper, we describe the development of a conceptual simulation model of the e-mail system, which is based on the use of personality trait dimensions to model the e-mail traffic behavior of e-mail users. This conceptual simulation model is being used as a first step for further development in simulating criminal and terrorist communication behavior. We also describe the development of an e-mail traffic analyser system, which uses a decision tree to search for interesting e-mail traffic behavioral patterns, and uses social network and time-series visualisation to provide the details of the interesting traffic patterns. We demonstrate that the personality trait based e-mail system model is useful as a tool for generating e-mail traffic behavioral patterns and that decision trees are useful for finding interesting patterns in the e-mail traffic data.

Faculty Use and Non-Use of Electronic Mail: Attitudes, Expectations and Profiles

This paper raises four research questions about the relationships between expectations about the faculty use of e-mail and the level of e-mail usage among faculty. The study uses a survey design to test expectations about technology on several attitude measures. We report that positive expectations about the functionality of technology are related to higher incidence of e-mail use. Furthermore, the results suggest higher existing levels of computer use in general, and that positive anticipation of future use is also related to higher levels of e-mail use in particular. These findings are then used to develop profiles of users and non-users. The results indicate that younger faculty with greater exposure to computers tend to be more frequent users of e-mail than older faculty whose customary communication styles do not include the use of e-mail. Finally it is suggested that expectations about the “promise of technology” are related to the actual use of technology.

Is mobile email functional or dysfunctional? Two perspectives on mobile email usage

This paper offers a study of contradiction in the usage of mobile email. Using qualitative data, the paper identifies mobile email usage patterns that are dangerous, distracting, anti-social and that infringe on work-life boundaries. Mobile email users were forthcoming in describing these dysfunctional usage patterns, but they made a convincing argument that their mobile devices are highly functional and allow them to be efficient, to multitask without disruption to others, and to respond immediately to messages, as well as offering them the freedom to work from anywhere. These dual perspectives on mobile email (dys)functionality are explored through a metaphorical lens, showing how organisational cultures can reinforce the functional perspective while simultaneously suppressing the dysfunctional view. It is argued that it is important to understand and explore the dysfunctional perspective of mobile email adoption. The paper concludes with a series of questions that challenge organisations to reflect critically on their assumptions about mobile email usage.

Decisional style and self-reported Email use in the workplace

Inefficient or inappropriate Email use within the workplace can lead to lowered productivity of an organisation. Technological predispositions, decisional style, and self-esteem may potentially influence the extent to which people use Email whilst at work. Higher levels of Email use in the workplace could be predicted by avoidant decisional styles such as procrastination and buck-passing. To understand how decisional style influences Email usage, 90 participants completed an Email Use Survey, the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. Procrastination, buck-passing, vigilance, hypervigilance and self-esteem were employed within separate multiple regressions to predict types of self-reported Email usage. Better-educated procrastinators reported higher levels of total Email usage. Older procrastinators reported more work-related Email usage. Young, better-educated individuals tended to report engaging in more personal Email usage in the workplace.

Behavior-based modeling and its application to Email analysis

The Email Mining Toolkit (EMT) is a data mining system that computes behavior profiles or models of user email accounts. These models may be used for a multitude of tasks including forensic analyses and detection tasks of value to law enforcement and intelligence agencies, as well for as other typical tasks such as virus and spam detection. To demonstrate the power of the methods, we focus on the application of these models to detect the early onset of a viral propagation without “content-base ” (or signature-based) analysis in common use in virus scanners. We present several experiments using real email from 15 users with injected simulated viral emails and describe how the combination of different behavior models improves overall detection rates. The performance results vary depending upon parameter settings, approaching 99 % true positive (TP) (percentage of viral emails caught) in general cases and with 0.38 % false positive (FP) (percentage of emails with attachments that are mislabeled as viral). The models used for this study are based upon volume and velocity statistics of a user's email rate and an analysis of the user's (social) cliques revealed in the person's email behavior. We show by way of simulation that virus propagations are detectable since viruses may emit emails at rates different than human behavior suggests is normal, and email is directed to groups of recipients in ways that violate the users' typical communications with their social groups.

Knowledge discovery in high-dimensional data: case studies and a user survey for the rank-by-feature framework

Knowledge discovery in high-dimensional data is a challenging enterprise, but new visual analytic tools appear to offer users remarkable powers if they are ready to learn new concepts and interfaces. Our three-year effort to develop versions of the Hierarchical Clustering Explorer (HCE) began with building an interactive tool for exploring clustering results. It expanded, based on user needs, to include other potent analytic and visualization tools for multivariate data, especially the rank-by-feature framework. Our own successes using HCE provided some testimonial evidence of its utility, but we felt it necessary to get beyond our subjective impressions. This paper presents an evaluation of the Hierarchical Clustering Explorer (HCE) using three case studies and an e-mail user survey (n = 57) to focus on skill acquisition with the novel concepts and interface for the rank-by-feature framework. Knowledgeable and motivated users in diverse fields provided multiple perspectives that refined our understanding of strengths and weaknesses. A user survey confirmed the benefits of HCE, but gave less guidance about improvements. Both evaluations suggested improved training methods.

Do Internet Users Have More Social Ties? A Call for Differentiated Analyses of Internet Use

Research on the impact of Internet use on social ties has generated conflicting results. Based on data from the 2000 General Social Survey, this study finds that different types of Internet usage are differentially related to social connectivity. While nonsocial users of the Internet do not differ significantly from nonusers in network size, social users of the Internet have more social ties than nonusers do. Among social users, heavy email users have more social ties than do light email users. There is indication that, while email users communicate online with people whom they also contact offline, chat users maintain some of their social ties exclusively online. These findings call for differentiated analyses of Internet uses and their effects on interpersonal connectivity.

Antecedents and Consequences of User Satisfaction with E-Mail Systems

E-mail is an important component of the e-collaborative environment. This study contributes to the literature by using the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) framework to model the antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction with e-mail systems. We employ a survey to gather empirical evidence to test the modified ACSI model for e-mail systems. Additionally, we test whether spam has an influence on a user’s satisfaction with his or her e-mail system. Our results generally support the notion that the ACSI framework can be used to model e-mail user satisfaction, but we do not find statistically significant evidence that spam affects overall user satisfaction with their e-mail system.

Describing the strategies used for dealing with email interruptions according to different situational parameters

Interruptions research is heavily reliant on a paradigm involving 'enforced interruption'. Email use however constitutes a special form of 'controlled interruption'. As there is no precedent available in the existing literature to describe what strategies people use to deal with 'controlled interruption', an exploratory first study was undertaken using an open-ended interview design. Twenty-eight email users working within UK organisations were asked about how they dealt with email interruptions, when faced with different situational or task parameters. Qualitative content analysis of interview transcripts revealed a wide range of strategies used for dealing with email in general, and for specific situations in particular, with idiosyncratic differences in application. These findings are consistent with the predictions of Action Regulation Theory [Hacker, W. (1985). Activity: A fruitful concept in industrial psychology. In M. Frese, J. Sabini (Eds.), Goal directed behaviour: The concept of action in psychology. London, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (Chapter 18); The German Journal of Psychology 18(2) (1994) 91-120] - that people select strategies (action programs) for achieving a task according to the specific parameters of the task or goal. However, the findings go further in highlighting the salience of individual differences in underwriting one's choice of strategy (or action program). Further research is required to understand which strategies are linked to effective performance, and how individual differences influence strategic decision making in multi-goal work environments.

An anti-spam scheme using pre-challenges

Unsolicited Commercial Email, or Spam, is nowadays an increasingly serious problem to email users. A number of anti-spam schemes have been proposed in the literature and some of them have been deployed in email systems, but the problem has yet been well addressed. One of those schemes is challenge-response, in which a challenge, ranging from a simple mathematical problem to a hard-AI problem, is imposed on an email sender in order to forbid machine-based spam reaching receivers’ mailboxes. However, such a scheme introduces new problems for the users, e.g., delay of service and denial of service. In this paper, we introduce the pre-challenge scheme, which is based on the challenge-response mechanism and takes advantage of some features of email systems. It assumes each user has a challenge that is defined by the user himself/herself and associated with his/her email address, in such a way that an email sender can simultaneously retrieve a new receiver’s email address and challenge before sending an email in the first contact. Some new mechanisms are employed in our scheme to reach a good balance between security against spam and convenience to normal email users. Our scheme can be also used for protecting other messaging systems, like Instant Messaging and Blog comments.

The Politeness of Requests Made Via Email and Voicemail: Support for the Hyperpersonal Model

This study analyzes requests made via email and voicemail for properties of politeness (Brown & Levinson, 1987). Voicemail users have less control over planning, composing, editing, and executing messages, and must manage more nonverbal cues than email users. Thus, it is predicted that email will enable users to create more polite speech than voicemail. A 2 (communication medium: email or voicemail) x 2 (imposition: low or high) factorial design was implemented to test this hypothesis. One hundred fifty-one participants created request messages that were subsequently analyzed for properties of politeness. Overall, the results indicate email requests were more polite than voicemail requests. These results are consistent with the hyperpersonal model (Walther, 1996).

Instant Messaging Among Teens: An Exploratory Look at Gender and Time Usage

It is a classic image deeply entrenched in the mind of the 20th century American parent: an adolescent girl with a phone to her ear. Chatting with friends she left only moments ago, she paces the floor tethered to the wall by the 3-foot cord. In clear sight of her parents and siblings, her conversational content and time usage are subject to constant scrutiny and review. But in reality, the networking habits of today's teen bear little resemblance to this once classic image. The landline telephone has long been replaced by the cell phone (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2004) and the Internet, particularly instant messaging (IM), is well on its way to becoming the communication medium of choice for teens (Guidry, 2004; Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2004; Grinter & Palen, 2002).Yet even as IM has become mired in the life of the American teenager (Guidry, 2004) many unanswered questions related to gender and time use remain. It has been determined, for example, that women are more relationship oriented than men (Boneva, et al., 2001), and that women invest more in personal relationships and maintain a more extensive social network (Moore, 1990; Walker, 1994; Wellman, 1992). Women are also more frequent users of the telephone (Walker, 1994) and heavier users of email (Boneva, Kraut & Frohlich, 2001). But does it follow that adolescent girls are more likely to be heavy IM users than adolescent boys? Do girls participate in Internet web-blog communities, such as Xanga.com, more frequently than boys?Grinter and Eldridge (2001) raised issues of public versus private space as they emphasized that the popularity of IM among teens stems from their need to socialize with friends while confined to their homes. Hellenga (2002) reinforces this notion, stating that peer-based connectedness is especially important for adolescents. Grinter and Palen (2002) further suggest that teens use IM to carve out a private world within the public space of home. Parents, by definition, are not included in this private space, thus it becomes difficult to determine just how much time their teens are spending on IM. Subrahmanyam, Kraut, Greenfield, and Gross (2000) have shown that most parents believe that purchasing a computer for their teen will give them an educational advantage, but if teens are multitasking between homework and IM, or remaining online IMing with friends long after their parents have gone to bed, this advantage will quickly disappear.Using self-reported phone surveys and focus groups, the Pew Internet & American Life Project (2005), an independent non-profit organization, has provided a wealth of information about teens and the use of IM. As suggested by Reynolds (1971), however, this exploratory study utilized naturalistic observation via a computer program called Buddy Tracker. Written by a member of our research team, this innovative approach allowed us to monitor and record the IM usage of our sample population thereby providing a snap shot of actual, rather than self-reported, teen IM usage.Numerous studies suggest that extended computer use among children may be linked to an increase risk of obesity, seizures, and hand injuries (Subrahmanyan, et al., 2000). Yet, the Pew Internet & American Life Project (2005) highlights a growth in computer usage among teens of roughly 24% in the last five years. Clearly it is important to know how much time teens are actually spending online, particularly when utilizing IM.Literature ReviewAdolescence is defined by a strong need for numerous friendships and peer-group affiliations. (Boneva, Quinn, Kraut, Kiesler and Shlovski, in press.) In addition, this developmental period is typically defined by the need for person-to-person communication with friends (Boneva, et al., in press.). Kyratzi (2004) also emphasizes the need for peer communication as a means of establishing and maintain peer culture. She asserts that peer talk is an essential device teens utilize to display their identities and ideologies. …

Education on the cost of e-mails

This paper evaluates the economic and environmental costs of sending an e-mail from home. Because e-mail is an indispensable tool for almost everyone today, its price is compared with the price of a stamp for snail mail. However, the price of sending an e-mail is hidden within telecommunication infrastructures. Although e-mail has a real economic and environmental cost, the absence of this real cost leads us to overproduce e-mails. Despite the fact that we pay flat rates, there are time windows that pollute less. In some cases, the cost of the infrastructure is lower than the cost of its exploitation, and ADSL is the least cost-effective according to the prices in Spain. A final reflection is that a single e-mail is very cheap but thousands of apparently free e-mails are expensive. If our students, the most intensive e-mail users, learn about its environmental costs, they may be persuaded to adopt Sustainable Development Education.

Older adults' motivated choice for technological innovation: Evidence for benefit-driven selectivity.

This study examined older adults' motivation to adopt technological innovation. Sixty-eight older e-mail users and nonusers discussed the use of e-mail and of traditional communication methods in 18 focus groups. The results show older adults' benefit-driven approach to new communication technology. Regardless of whether their decision about the new technology was positive or negative and irrespective of their e-mail experience, participants focused on benefits rather than costs. For traditional media, both costs and benefits were important. Results contradict the common belief that barriers such as usability problems determine whether older people use new technology and indicate the decisive role of perceived benefits for successful innovation.

Consumo de los medios de comunicación en la adolescencia

To describe mass media use in teenagers (television, mobile phones, computers, Internet and video games) and to analyze its influence on teenagers' health and development. We performed a cross sectional study by means of a survey of 884 teenagers aged between 14 and 18 years old who were in the third and fourth years of high school in six towns in Cantabria (Spain) in June 2003. The statistical analysis consisted of uni- and bivariable descriptive statistics. All the teenagers had a television set at home and 24 % of families had four or more television sets. The presence of distinct mass media in teenagers' rooms was 52.5 % for televisions, 57.8 % for computers, 52 % for the Internet and 38.7 % for games consoles. The most frequently found media in teenagers' bedrooms were radio/cassette players and compact disks with 76.8 % and 67.4 %, respectively. Teenagers watched television for an average of 3 hours per day on weekdays and 3.2 hours per day at weekends. They played games consoles for an average of 0.69 hours per day on weekdays (41 min) and an average of 1.09 hours per day (65 min) at weekends and used the Internet on weekdays for an average of 0.83 hours per day (49 min) and an average of 1.15 hours per day (69 min) at weekends. A total of 87.2 % of the teenagers, especially girls, had a mobile phone (91.6 % of girls versus 82.4 % of boys; p < 0.001). The average age at which teenagers had the first mobile phone was 13 years old. Expenditure on mobile phones amounted to 15 3 a month in girls and 10 3 a month in boys, and mobiles were mainly used for sending messages. Nearly half the teenagers (46.4 %) took their mobile phones to high school and reported they had an average of three mobile phones at home. Most (82.1 %) surfed the net but boys preferred surfing and downloading games and girls preferred chatting and sending e-mails. Sixty-two percent of teenagers had been to a cybercafé and 40.8 % has visited a pornographic web site, especially boys (33.1 % of boys versus 7.7 % of girls; p < 0.001). Nearly two-thirds of teenagers (71.5 %) had a video console, especially boys (87 % of boys versus 57.2 % of girls; p < 0.001) and they started playing with them at an average age of 8.8 years. Boys preferred video games with shooting, fights, sports and driving, while girls preferred adventure video games. Nearly a quarter (22.2 %) spent money on video games and cybercafés (an average of 27.06 3 a month in boys and 16.81 3 a month in girls) with no significant differences between sexes. Society as a whole and especially health professionals should increase health education on mass media consumption, by stimulating reasonable use of mass media and teaching teenagers to be critical. Parents should set a limit of less than 2 hours/day to the use of mass media and should avoid their presence in teenagers' bedrooms. Prepay mobile phone should be used and switched off in inappropriate places. Parents should supervise and educate teenagers about video games, Internet access and e-mail usage in adolescence.

Fighting Spam with Reputation Systems

Spam is everywhere, clogging the inboxes of e-mail users worldwide. Not only is it an annoyance, it erodes the productivity gains afforded by the advent of information technology. Workers plowing through hours of legitimate e-mail every day also must contend with removing a significant amount of illegitimate e-mail. Automated spam filters have dramatically reduced the amount of spam seen by the end users who employ them, but the amount of training required rivals the amount of time needed simply to delete the spam without the assistance of a filter.

Legislative Definition of Spam for New Zealand

This article discusses the phenomenon of spam with the intention of providing a practical definition of the concept for use in anti-spam legislation. The billions of e-mails that are classified as spam every year affect the majority of the world's e-mail users, and apart from causing annoyance these unwanted communications create significant economic costs. Filtering and downloading spam wastes both time and money, and governments around the world are beginning to react to the problem with legislation to reduce the volume of spam and penalise those who deal in this medium.The problem is how to define "spam" without punishing legitimate commercial e-mails and other unsolicited e-mails that, while not specifically requested, are not unwanted. The author supports an "opt-in" regime with the defences of consent and conspicuous publication available to prevent undue curtailment of the freedom of expression guaranteed by the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. This approach is encompassed in draft legislation set out at the end of the article.