Roughly fifty years ago, software developer Ray Tomlinson, who also invented the @ symbol, sent the first email. The way in which this simple act has impacted our way of communicating over the course of half a century might only be surpassed if we were to find a way to communicate telepathically.

And this far-reaching digitalization probably became apparent yesterday once more, when the first thing people set out to do after reluctantly opening their mailboxes following a two-week hiatus, was to throw out all unnecessary messages. Who doesn’t think for a moment: ‘control-Alt and delete everything?’ We’ll just wait and see in the coming days who sent me something important in those two weeks.

I myself got caught in a maze of spam messages once again. I get offers for detox programs and diet plans, for the most effective ways to remove nail fungus, for an amazing travel pillow, for drones and for hypertension medication. And at this point, I could do with a prescription of the latter.

But digitalization isn’t limited solely to exchanging messages. At our university, many of the things that were dealt with on paper by someone at the secretarial office in the past, have ended up on one’s own digital plate. This includes charging your parking card, buying pens and post-its via iProcurement, planning a trip abroad and filing for reimbursement of travel expenses, filling in your annual review, as well as applying for a couple of coffee pots and requesting that someone come and take away the broken chair at your workplace. And there’s a different system for everything, each with its own rules and passwords.

How much time have we spent by now dealing with these chores digitally? It certainly makes my head spin at times, and I’m sure that I’m not the only one. But I fear that the road we’ve taken since mister Tomlinson sent that first email won’t have an exit any time soon. So, simply move on and delete that message that promises me a simple and safe way to get rid of my wrinkles in just a few days. Although, perhaps I should click just to see how they expect to make that happen, because I have more than a few…