E-mail is a bit too easy and inexpensive to use.

Yes, some people extol its speed and beauty. Of course, they are right.

However, e-mail is so accessible, it can easily take over a large part of your life. You may discover that a large portion of your free time is wasted on these speedy tools. This time might be better spent in other activities.

It might actually be beneficial to do things the old-fashioned or slower methods of communication in order to limit your own accessability.

Think about your contacts from abroad.

Granted, telephone charges are much cheaper than they used to be. However, people may still think twice before dialing a country code for a phone call or a fax. That may cut down on some messages that you receive.

This is not the case with the Internet and with email. Since it is so fast, easy, and cheap, people will not hesitate to contact you. It is much more difficult to keep a distance and to maintain your own home life and privacy.

Some people ask to try the Internet for a while. If there's a problem, they say that they will terminate it.

It's not quite that simple.

Once people know that you have email access it will be their preferred method of contacting you. It will not take long for your e-mail address to appear on e-mail lists around the world.

Yes, you can contact those people and tell them that you have terminated your Internet - but once started, it may not be a feasible alternative.

Once people are used to contacting you with this fast, easy, and cheap method, you won't want to disappoint them. You may feel that you are causing so much ill will by terminating the email service that it isn't worth it.

In other words, e-mail does become addictive and - as with any other addiction it may be very difficult to stop.

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