The worst thing about vacation is the first day back at the job. This is, I'm convinced, the harshest verity of all work life, even when what we do for pay is something we enjoy tremendously. The length of vacation doesn't seem to matter much, nor does it get easier with experience. Reentry requires a particular kind of fortitude.

I needed some of that resilience when, still savoring the vestiges of my vacation, I checked my e-mail in-box one bright morning: 871 messages.

Yikes! How did that happen? I was gone only four days. How many people had that much to say? For a fleeting moment, I considered calling in sick. Or, better yet, I thought of obliterating the entire in-box. How tempting.

Of course, that would only delay the inevitable. E-mail is the way I learn about staff meetings, reorganizations and final edits. It is how readers offer their opinions and marketers pitch their ideas.

But what was once a welcomed boon to communication is now its bane. The crush of e-mail is overloading my computer, not to mention my brain. I dread dealing with e-mail after an absence of even a few days.

Everybody I know complains about the crush of electronic mail clogging up the system, yet we are the very people who are quick to click on SEND. I'm not writing about spam here, but about forwarded jokes, prayers, invitations, links, announcements and, in the case of journalists, press releases.

No wonder DELETE has become my favorite function.

Don't jump to conclusions. I love e-mail -- or, at least, I once did. It has made my job of reaching people more convenient, and I can corral all my children with one short note in the middle of a workday. But too much of a good thing can be toxic, and e-mail overload is a prime example of the wisdom of our mothers when they pronounced, ``Everything in moderation.''

Those in the know say it's only going to get worse. Daily e-mail volume is currently at 210 billion messages a day worldwide. By next year, The Radicati Group, a technology market research firm, predicts it will increase to 247 billion. By 2012? 419 billion. It probably would be significantly more if our teens hadn't forsaken e-mail for the more popular sport of texting.

Plenty of companies have caught on to the fact that e-mail has become a distraction. Some have instituted e-mail free days and others discourage the ''reply all'' feature. There is talk of a filtering program to help us sort through what is important and what isn't.

I'm not sure that will help. Fact is, some of us are enslaved to what we profess to hate. The fourth annual E-mail Addiction Survey from AOL Mail shows that more and more Americans e-mail when they should be doing something else.

Nearly half of e-mail users said they're hooked, up from 15 percent last year, and 51 percent check four or more times a day, up from 45 percent in 2007. We click on while in bed, from the bathroom, while driving and during vacation. Some -- 15 percent -- confess to doing it from church.

If the past is a predictor of the future, it's only a matter of time before group therapy sessions for e-mailivitis crop up at offices and rag mag paparazzi catch celebrities clicking furtively in the middle of the night. Dr. Phil will probably host a special. Maybe then we will recognize how the medium has truly become the message.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@