Dear AoIR-ers - Perhaps only a philosopher would take two data points and create a generalization (smile) - but my curiosity has been tickled regarding the following scenario: a friend with a specific political viewpoint regularly forwards e-mails to a list of friends; at some point, someone in the group strongly disagrees with the perspective / argument represented in a forward - and, instead of ignoring the matter, fires back to the whole group; the original sender is embarrassed, angry, etc. - and promptly excludes the debater from the list for subsequently forwards. This has happened to me recently - and, entirely unrelatedly to my own experience, to a friend. The friend commented: I think e-mail is destroying friendships. O.k. - two data points; but I'm curious if the multitude of expert aoir researchers have looked into this phenomenon, especially in the current context (the war, notions of patriotism, etc., make for especially fractious debates) - perhaps as (a) an e-mail analogue to the now well-known and well-researched phenomena of flaming, etc.; (b) a counterpoint to the multiple ways in which e-mail works to foster and reinforce relationships? Curiously, Charles Ess Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Drury University 900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html Co-chair, CATaC: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/ Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23