Email and more email

I read this article in the New York Times and it made me wonder how my emails are perceived. According to the article, a majority of positive email is read as neutral and a majority of neutral email is read as negative. Explains all those smiley faces and other emoticons that show up in email. I tend to use email probably more than I should with the excuse that I'd probably be bothering someone if I were to actually use the phone or stop by for a chat. My other excuse for email being that I'm not sure when I'd have time for anything other than email. On the other hand, as the article mentions, email can be very effective when the two parties have actually met face-to-face even just once. Considering how very infrequently I email someone I've not met (usually catalog orders and customer service has to respond positively no matter how my email is perceived) there's some hope that most of my email is read as either positive :-) or neutral. :-|