“It got trapped in my drafts folder” and other inglorious internet-based excuses

The internet, and smartphones etc, have certainly made it easier to work, but I’m not sure they’ve made it easier to work well. We’re all “pinging” emails around all day – just because we can, really – and becoming ever more careless in what we send and how. On top of that, we’re now actually making use of the sketchiness of modern communication in order to wriggle out of having missed an email, forgotten to send something – ultimately not worked at our best. The internet is making us dishonest and lazy.

“Oh, it got trapped in my drafts folder,” some might offer by way of excuse for having not sent an email or a document on time. We all know it probably didn’t get “trapped”; that doesn’t really, honestly happen. It just didn’t get sent. But nobody can be completely sure of that, so the excuse somehow stands.

It’s not the only excuse the internet has brought about. It’s one of an inglorious top three:

1. “My connection is so slow today, I’m not sure I’ll get the file to go through today. How about I send it first thing?”
2. “I didn’t get your email until now, it was picked up by my super paranoid spam filter.”
3. “I’m so sorry, I thought I’d sent it but it got trapped in my drafts folder.”