The E-mail is Down! Using a 1940s method to analyze a 21st century problem

Abstract

When the electronic mail system at a university crashed, researchers turned to a methodology developed more than 50 years earlier to examine its impact. Using a modified version of Bernard Berelson “missing the newspaper” survey questionnaire, student researchers collected qualitative comments from 85 faculty and staff members. Like the original, the study found extensive anxiety over the loss of the information source, plus a high degree of habituation and dependence on the new medium.