Email:The New Dear Hunter...

In Bambi, the hunter killed the deer. However, in a multimedia world, the new hunter of the 'Dear' is email.

Someone once told me that beginning an email with 'Dear' is  not only considered archaic, but also mildly threatening within business communication.  The work email has evolved considerably in a short space of time and the result is that the all too formal 'Dear', is no longer part of the cool crowd.

Whilst in school, I was taught to begin every correspondence with 'Dear', including letters to strangers, employers, family, best friends and even my diary. How else is one supposed to greet another in a formal yet friendly manner?! Hey, hello, hi, hiya, even howdy... A stream of greetings beginning with a 'H' crowd my mind each time I begin to type a work email. Usually I give in to the traditional 'Hey', but I cannot help but feel that it may be an inappropriate way to greet a commissioner of whom I have never liaised before. Then again, just like deer, commissioners have been known to be quite skittish, so a simple 'Hey' is usually the best way of ensuring your hard-sell doesn't look so hard.

Email politics... I cannot help but wonder if it should be included in the school curriculum. Of course we all learnt to send emails in school, but cyber speak is quickly evolving and is fast becoming a language of it's own. Not only do we have to worry about 'Dears', but there is a entire list of do's and don'ts:

Don't be too blunt, but also make sure that you aren't too elaborate. No one cares for metaphorical imagery when trying to organise a meeting with MTV.
Do be polite, but ensure that it does not come across as insincere.
Do ask personal questions - show an interest in the person. However, ask an inappropriately personal question and all could be lost.
Don't leave a kiss/ or do leave a kiss/ but if more superior than yourself, ensure that the other person is the first to leave a kiss.
Do copy in the relevant people - but perhaps state why this is the case.

Yes, the world of email is far more complicated that one may initially anticipate. Further complicated by social networking websites, in which one is expected to express themselves with 140 characters or less, familiarity within email is becoming less and less common. With a tendency myself to reply with one word emails here and there, I cannot help but miss the flowery language of the good old hand-written letter. Taking longer to form each word, more attention is placed upon what is being written. Perhaps we ought to log off, disconnect the modem, shut down our computers and revet to correspondence sent by post.

 It may just be time to show the cool crowd what for and reclaim "old and boring" 'Dear'.

Someone once told me...

Someone once told me that it was only polite to introduce yourself when meeting new people. Despite the fact that I will more than likely never meet most of you lovely people in the flesh, I thought a formal introduction was probably necessary.

My name is Megan and I am currently living in Manchester and working at a television production company. Having graduated from the University of Manchester in June of last year, I worked as an extras booker at an acting agency in which I was fortunate enough to work on several exciting projects. However, as much fun as it was to tell my friends that I was currently working on the new Samuel L. Jackson film, we all secretly know that I wasn't technically working "on" the new Samuel L. Jackson film. In fact, I was probably more of a bystander than the members of the public that chose to mob the set on a daily basis with the hope of getting a meagre glimpse of Mr Jackson himself. No, I realised that casting was not for me. I had bigger dreams;  dreams of cameras, scripts, brainstorming meetings and light bulb ideas. I was destined to work in television production, not glorified recruitment (with a quarter of the usual salary) - so when a friend asked if I would like to be put forward for my current position, I would have been a fool to say no, even if the interview did fall on my birthday.

The rest, as they generally say is history and now I go to work with a spring in my step and a sparkle in my eyes - apart from Monday mornings, which are generally gruesome and involve Ugg boots and swear words not even your mother could imagine.

Enough about that.

I never considered myself the sort to start a blog. Whilst reading other blogs, I became overwhelmed by a cringing sensation which would lead me to wonder "why on Earth would you feel the need to tell people that?!" And yet, here I am, as they say - blogging. In turn, probably causing anyone else who does read my blog to cringe themselves. Cringe away... feel free to do so... please, I insist! I have not started a blog to uniquely express myself. I have not started a blog for the glory or to attract thousands of followers. Crikey, I haven't even started a blog for people to genuinely read (I personally prefer more of a skim, as it generally then takes me less time to get to the best cringey bits).

No,  I did not start this blog for any other reason than the fact that someone once told me to... and as you shall learn, I take notice of what other people say. Whether or not I agree with such statements is another issue altogether, but I will always have an opinion and I suppose now, I have somewhere to share it.

I hope that those who do not only stumble across my blog, but can also bear to read it, enjoy it!

 Even if only for the cringe factor...