Rant: Who Invented Read Receipts in E-Mail?
I am sure there's a good reason for why the receipt system was invented in e-mail. I don't don't know why.
We have delivery confirmation for the good old United States Postal Service, but it stops at delivery. The USPS doesn't force me to acknowledge I've read my mail. So why do e-mail senders feel entitled to try to figure out the exact moment we've read their messages?
I can see why people worry whether or not their messages are being read, but my annoyance trumps my understanding.
I use Outlook at work and I have preview pane open to make it easier to see what messages are in my Inbox. When I am quickly scrolling through the messages that came in and suddenly get dinged with a "The sender has requested a read notification...blah blah message," I am forced to stop.
Now, I am trying to figure out if there's anything urgent I have to address before I get back towork, so I haven't read the entire pitch. Perhaps just the subject line, and maybe the first two sentences. So the answer is No, right? But it is right now read in my Inbox, and who knows when I will go back and read it? (I will, at some point. Just not sure whether that's in the next hour or next week) So is that a 'Yes'?
And then there's the curmudgeon in me. What if I did read your pitch, but I don't feel like letting you know that? I freely admit it. Regardless of whether or not I've read the message, I am more likely to say No when prompted.