Should Justin Ellsworth's Parents Have Been Given Access to His Email?

Case Assignment Week 3

Should Justin Ellsworth's Parents have been given access to his email?

A utilitarian view of this situation dictates that Justin Ellsworth’s parents should not have been given access to his email account.

In the time before email, the letter was the most common form of written communication. It was a formal process where the author had to put ink to paper, place the paper in an envelope, address the envelope, place proper postage on the envelope and ensure the entire letter made it in the mail before the next pick up time or your letter would sit an additional day (two days if you missed Saturday’s pickup). Your letter would take a day or two to reach its destination then if the recipient responded with a letter of his own; the process is repeated back to you. In the best-case scenario, the exchange of letters would take about a week and with each letter came an investment in both time and the material costs. Because of the investment, an additional amount of time was allotted to proof reading and the correctness of content because once it is sent, there is no way to quickly rectify any errors. As a general rule, a letter was written better, followed a specific format for its construction and did not lend itself to frivolous communication. With a letter, one makes a conscious choice on how they present themselves to the reader.

Email on the other hand is just the opposite. Email is meant for quick communication. If emailing a friend, shortcuts, typing errors and abbreviations of are perfectly acceptable. The author doesn’t have the same investment in an email that a letter writer does and will proof read it less, thereby being less cognizant of unintended communication. The time from creation and delivery are just seconds and if the author forgets to include something, nothing says he can’t send another email ten seconds later. Instead of sitting down at a writing desk, email is frequently constructed while standing in line, at a stoplight or in between homework assignments. Email lends itself to frivolous communication because forwarding the latest off color joke to your friend is only a couple of clicks away. Communications with email is just so different and for some reason, criticisms feel harsher and playful banter between the sexes takes on a much more flirtatious tone.

In my previous job assignment, I lived and breathed email. I received 150-200 emails a day and sent 30-50 emails a day. This was done in a business setting on my work email so in addition to being brief, these emails were also professional.

When it came to my personal email, the same professionalism didn’t apply. It was not unusual for me to call, or be called an off color name by a friend and humor that I find hilarious someone else might find extremely distasteful. The context