More and more emailers are doing away with "dear" and other old formalities to begin their notes, addressing each other with "hey," "hi," or other casual salutations instead, according to The Wall Street Journal. Some say it's because "dear" implies intimacy that is inappropriate in today's business world. Others say it's because of a loss of etiquette. Which is it — is dropping "dear" a sign of societal breakdown or a natural evolution in our electronic age?
"Dear" is a thing of the past: "Dear" was fine for "a parchment letter to your grandmother," says Jen Doll in The Village Voice, but in an email it comes across as "creepy" or "overly formal." Besides, "as we strive to confine our sentiments to the space allotted to text messages" and tweets, we need to cut "extraneous" words. "It's not that we're becoming ruder, it's that we're becoming more efficient."
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