I'm co dotty nowI can use e-mail

Nikki White, a journalist on Medway Today, was brave enough to admit in print that she'd only just caught up with the miracle that is e-mail - and we know she's not alone.

I have made another discovery. And, once again, most of the world has already discovered it, it used and moved on.

But now I've caught up and I think it's fab.

I have actually had an e-mail address on my computer at home for the past year.

But fear that I may wipe all my husband's important files off the computer, coupled with a completed inability to read instruction manuals, means I've never actually used it.

But then they gave us e-mail addresses at work, which meant I had no option but to learn how to use it.

Even more importantly, my own mother - who has problems using the video - has been using e-mail for weeks now, and there's no way I can let her get the better of me.

It's not that I'm a complete technophobe; once I know how things work, I'm pretty keen to use them.

My problem is that I haven't got the patience to read instruction manuals and I'm not brave enough to just sit at a computer and play around to find out what they can and cannot do.

I usually find myself in a fix, such as the time I downloaded the famous front page "Freddie Starr ate my hamster" from The Sun website and then couldn't get rid of it.

My better half erased it, replaced it with fluffy white clouds and graciously said nothing.

A couple of weeks ago, I reluctantly attended an e-mail training course and now wish I had learned how to use the thing months ago.

Messages can be whizzed around at the speed of light and if you want to send it to just one or hundreds of people, it doesn't take much more than the press of a button.

My frustration now that I have joined the 21st century is that when I switch my machine on, nobody has e-mailed me and I know so few e-mail addresses (which reminds me, those gaps in your address book which had to get bigger when the world and his wife got a mobile phone will have to get even bigger for all those co.uk entries).

Of course, the problem could be that I kept forgetting to tell people I've got an e-mail address.

So that was a complete waste of time, then.

(Reproduced courtesy of Medway Today)

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