A link would have been sufficient.

Over the years I've received a vast number of PowerPoint presentations that someone was convinced just had to be passed on to his or her extensive list of contacts. Some of these have very impressive photographs. Some of them are quite enjoyable. The vast majority of them are bloated with non-descript graphics that convert what could have been a pleasant and to-the-point joke or story into a pain to download. I still get numerous Windows Media Format videos that take up a handful of megabytes and turn out to have made the rounds years ago already. And today, almost all of these are available via YouTube. I've even set myself the challenge of finding them there in two minutes or less, and I almost always succeed.

Though I want to be thankful that my friends are thinking of me, assuming (sometimes even correctly) that I'll appreciate what they've sent, more often than not I'd be quite willing to forego the presents bestowed on me. This isn't because I don't enjoy what they've sent - I can certainly afford the short break from whatever I'm doing to take a peek at something that makes me think or smile. But more often than not, due to the download time, the break isn't short, and it's not simply a peek. Both parties could save a great deal of time by finding the online link and sending that. Perhaps the sender thinks that sending a hefty file is more personal than simply linking to a site somewhere out in cyberspace. There may be some logic in such a thought, in the sense that we perceive sending the "actual" file as being closer to relating to it as though it has a physical presence than sending only a link.



Go to: Fade away.