Copycataclysm
Do you know what CC: really stands for?

by Paul Bacon

Are you a compulsive communicator? An exploiter of e-mail? Do you copy everyone on your office mailing list for fear of leaving someone out of the loop? Before you use the "cc:" button to spam your co-workers again, take a look at what it really stands for.

CARBON COPYING - An exhausting method of reproducing documents before the advent of photocopiers. By stuffing a few sheets of paper into a typewriter--with a piece of carbon paper between each sheet--secretaries could create multiple documents, but usually no more than four at a time. 

CRUCIAL CORRESPONDENCE - The practical limit of office communication in this era.

COUNTLESS CENTURIES - The amount of time, in technological terms, that has passed since then. 

CRITICAL CONVENIENCE - The threshold we cross when copying an e-mail to numerous recipients simply because we can. 

CORPORATE CULTURE - An unwavering set of organizational dogmas, one of which dictates that a communiqué from person A to person B must be distributed to persons C through Z, lest the first pair be accused of collusion and flogged as traitors.

COMPLETE CRAP - What fills our e-mailboxes as a result. 

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