A wonderful new writing prize has been named in my honor.
One day only!
Enter the Paul Jones Answer Your Damn Email Prize from the North Carolina Writers Network only on April 1, 2026.
May all your replies be timely.
Accept no substitutes
A wonderful new writing prize has been named in my honor.
One day only!
Enter the Paul Jones Answer Your Damn Email Prize from the North Carolina Writers Network only on April 1, 2026.
May all your replies be timely.
#noemail is stylish. Who knew? Courtney Rubin reports in this past Sunday’s NYTimes Style section “Email Gets Failing Grades”.
I’m quoted as:
Paul Jones, a professor at the University of North Carolina, does not think they should have to.
“E-mail is a sinkhole where knowledge goes to die,” said Mr. Jones, who said that he gave up e-mail in 2011. It was a radical move, not least because Mr. Jones helped write the code for the university’s first e-mail program 30 years ago. “I’m trying to undo that sinful work,” he said, joking.
E-mails to him receive an automated reply: “Goodbye E-mail, I’m divesting,” plus some 20 ways to reach him. About the only person frustrated by this, he said, was a department head who wanted to know “how will you possibly read our important departmental announcements?” Mr. Jones said with a laugh.
But in his quest to eliminate e-mail, Mr. Jones may have a surprising obstacle: students. Canvas, a two-year-old learning management system used by Brown University, among others, allows students to choose how to receive messages like “The reading assignment has been changed to Chapter 2.” The options: e-mail, text, Facebook and Twitter. According to company figures, 98 percent chose e-mail.
My responses here later.
The title says it all Give Up Email Altogether
Read and heed.
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