Sarah O'Connor
Staff Reporter
Dear Christmas,
You're my favourite holiday, and I know I’m not alone on that. I just can't resist you. I love the Christmas music, the Christmas specials, the candy canes, the Santa hats, the multicoloured trees and singing ornaments. The looks on my family’s faces, excitement and love, sitting around the Christmas tree and opening presents with glee. It’s a chance for us all to be together with no work or school. And once it snows, it will feel like you're right around the corner and the countdown can begin!
But while I love you dearly, you do get on my nerves from time to time. It's only November, Christmas. And that means one thing – it's too early for you!
Last week, I saw you in every store in the mall. Your red and green sweaters, flashing toys, ridiculously early sales and neon twinkling lights[1] - you were practically shouting that you were on your way. Halloween hadn’t even arrived yet! I’m sorry, Christmas, but that’s just a little rude.
Even though Halloween isn't my favourite holiday, I enjoy the appearance of black cats and witches’ hats, but I certainly don't need you breathing down my neck so much. Halloween gives you no excuse to be so creepy.
Christmas, it’s only November. We still have Remembrance Day, and our neighbours in the States still have Thanksgiving, I know we don’t have any more days off until you arrive but these holidays are just as important as you, maybe even more so since they haven’t been commercialized like you have.
Every time I leave my house I’m afraid to see your telltale LED lights because you’ve convinced another person that Christmas is only two months away. I shiver looking at my Newsfeed on buying propecia Facebook in case one of my friends has posted a daily countdown to Christmas.
I love you Christmas, but let’s slow it down. By the time it's really your moment to shine, people will be sick of you. With the way you're acting now, people are going to replace you with Boxing Day. Perhaps some already have.
In a nutshell, people are starting to think you're desperate, Christmas.
Sincerely,
A Christmas lover who likes the wait
Karen Piper
The Silhouette
Dear McMaster emailing system,
I am a second-year Commerce student who recently transferred from another University. And ever since I started off here, there has been one thing I haven’t been able to ignore. I have received over 70 emails from McMaster. Within one month.
Now, I do not want to be misunderstood as someone who isn’t technologically savvy and not embracing the culture of electronic communication, trust me, I am. However, when does it become too much information?
Have you ever heard of the “use it or lose it” phenomenon? It means that even if our brains have an astonishing storage capacity of one million gigabytes (yes, it has been researched), if we deem the information not to be relevant or meaningful, chances are we are not going to remember it. The fundamental fact here is that many students disregard a significant proportion of emails from this school. It’s a little sad, but extremely true.
Before I continue, I must propose a solution. To stop this annoying bombardment of information, each faculty, discipline or club should summarize their information, reminders and invitations into weekly emails, or even bi-weekly emails. That’s it, no more.
One may say that sending an email once a week may cause students to forget the information the email was relating to them. And although that is in fact a valid criticism, it is ultimately up to the receiver of such information to determine what is imperative knowledge and potentially beneficial.
For instance, an email received from International Student Services about Welcome Week activities may be quite valuable to a first year student who wants to actively participate in campus events and become fully acquainted with their new McMaster experience.
However, another first year may just want to settle in quietly without taking part in all the seemingly ‘fun’ activities. This does not mean that sending the same Welcome Week email six times in two to three days will convince the latter student to engage.
After saying all of this, I hope that someone in a key position to make a change in the volume of emails we are forced to encounter reads this article and comprehends its main idea.
We all have a quest for knowledge and information, but please McMaster, enough is enough. Lay off the emails … at least just a little.
Yours truly,
Spam filter’s No. 1 fan
