Email Personality Checker

Email

from the must-we-automate-everything? dept

I use Eudora as my email client which has the amusing (if mostly useless) feature of noticing if I’m using any bad words, and warning me that I might be “flaming” someone (it also notes if incoming mail appears to be burning hot as well). Basically, if you put in a curse, it notices it. This is a slightly different take on the ever-popular spell-checker and grammar-checker offerings. We’ve already seen some other variations on the technology, such as the “Bullfighter” application that would help you cut buzzwords out of your documents. Now, however, a researcher in the UK is apparently working on something of a “personality checker” for your email. You first indicate what sort of personality you want to display (“why, I’m sort of morbid today, let’s make my emails dark”) and then it will watch what you write and suggest alternatives to more properly convey the proper tone. Consider it your very own personality coach. Apparently, we feel the need to automate even our own personality these days. Since studies have shown that spell checkers make good spellers worse, does that mean this new tool will give us less personality?