In which Miss Manners explains the proper form and choice of technology for messages private, professional, and public: when to phone, when to fax, when a handwritten note is obligatory, a form letter forbidden, and a chain letter out of the question.
A nice review of basic communication etiquette, updated with some specifics for cellular phones, laptops, and most other modern gizmos. As she points out in the first chapter, "It is impossible to invent entirely new human behavior, no matter what the less tasteful movie advertisements seem to promise. Miss Manners hopes she hasn't disappointed anyone by announcing this, but even the most delightfully efficient inventions do not pretend to offer new things to do - only new ways of doing the same things people have always been doing... So etiquette really has an easy time of it when asked to make new regulations for new equipment. It need only ask itself what the rules already are for the same behavior."
A nice review of basic communication etiquette, updated with some specifics for cellular phones, laptops, and most other modern gizmos. As she points out in the first chapter, "It is impossible to invent entirely new human behavior, no matter what the less tasteful movie advertisements seem to promise. Miss Manners hopes she hasn't disappointed anyone by announcing this, but even the most delightfully efficient inventions do not pretend to offer new things to do - only new ways of doing the same things people have always been doing... So etiquette really has an easy time of it when asked to make new regulations for new equipment. It need only ask itself what the rules already are for the same behavior."
