An email from my father
I believe an email can be persistent, visible, searchable , and spreadable depending on the kind of architecture or social media device one uses to manipulate it. Danah Boyd’s 2014 article titled "It's complicated, the social lives of teens," reminds me so much of an email my late father sent to my older sister when she was in the UK for her bachelor’s degree. At the time I was in high school in Nigeria and my dad was about to take a medical trip abroad, so I wrote a list of things I needed for my high school prom which was to happen in a few months’ time, and I tasked him and my older sister to get my prom dress for me. Attached to the list was a cut-out from a magazine of a dress Beyonce wore for some award, so they would have an idea of the kind of prom dress I wanted. Quite frankly my father could not deal so he sent an email to my sister which said, “Uju, The attached is a scanned photo of Beyonce, which as you may be aware is Adaeze’s ...