So there’s an emerging backlash against the flood of “Notification” email people receive from Facebook and other social networking applications–enough so that the phenomenon is getting its own term: bacn (and ode to spam of course). Like the real spam’s beautiful sister food bacon, bacn is delicious, but you really shouldn’t eat too much of it in any one setting.

Bacn, my dear friends, can be good for you, but my advice is keep it out of your inbox. I love the fact that I have a record of pretty much anything that my closest most intimate friends I’ve never met face-to-face are doing anywhere in the digital world. And all facetiousness aside, it’s helpful in remembering birthdays and other momentous occasions and important things in people’s lives. It helps us be more connected. But it can kill productivity.

As one t-shirt puts it, it’s “e-mail you want, but not right now.” I’d go so far as to say it’s email I don’t want. I have all my notification go to my spam address and generally let them sit there and rot. It’s the only way to do it. This is not what email was made for. In fact, we abuse email terribly–and it’s usefulness as a communications tool is relatively limited, but that’s a rant for another day (that I promise you is coming soon)!