Anyone else had enough of e-mail? I say this because I’ve had two one-word e-mails this week. No ‘Hello Nathan, thanks for your message, blah blah blah’. Just one word, writes our Rural Affairs Editor Nathan Rous.

No pleasantries, no goodbyes, no see-through suggestions of get-togethers which will never happen, just one-word answers to my questions.

And so I sit at my computer and seethe; seethe that I wasted my time sending them an e-mail in the first place, and seethe that this rather clever piece of technology delivers me all the satisfaction of a dog turd through my letterbox.

Cast your mind back to the early 1990s when e-mail was hailed as the greatest communication achievement of all time.

It was meant to bring people together all over the world; heal rifts; enhance friendships; break down business barriers; encourage open dialogue. Instead, slowly but surely, we have become informalised.

It’s the new graffiti. Random words, colloquialisms, vulgarisations, all thrown down on an e-mail and despatched without due care and attention. Check out the Shropshire Star’s very own website discussion forums if you want first-hand examples.

Not only does everyone have an opinion, for some reason they have to write it down as quickly as possible without a thought for grammar, or style, or punctuation, or reason.

“Rous is a ******” they write, the malice slightly tempered by their e-mail handle of ‘nobby105′ or ‘insomniac’. Their point may be valid, but it would be an awful lot better if they constructed a proper sentence.

While intriguing conversation and good old fashioned writing etiquette is thin on the ground when it comes to e-mail, every sentence is littered with exclamation marks and stupid smiley faces made out of a colon and a bracket – :) – or a semi-colon and bracket to imply a wink – ;)

If you’re lucky, the introduction of a zero in the middle gives it a cute nose – ;0).

We’re pushing for high-speed broadband in rural areas but does anybody actually need it if all they are going to do is prattle away on e-mail? The trouble is it’s only going to get worse, for there is simply no alternative.

Angered by the second one-word missive in as many days, I stropped to the Post office in the hope of picking up some trusty Basildon Bond and some stamps only to discover it was shut.

Seeing a shadowy figure still inside behind the counter, I rapped on the door. “Anyone there?” I said knowingly.

“Sorry mate, we close half-day on Wednesdays,” said the shadowy figure. I saw red, and it wasn’t just the postbox.

Who in the name of God’s holy earth takes a half-day these days? Who in their right-mind decides to shut up shop in the middle of the day and call it quits?

With the economy slowing down and businesspeople working their backsides off to make ends meet, how can a service survive if it turns customers away?

Even Blists Hill Victorian town stays open all day on Wednesday, and it’s only pretend.

I feel sorry for the thousands of people across Shropshire who have campaigned long and hard for the surival of their Post Office, urging the Goverment to re-think its strategy to wipe 2,500 off the map.

“It will be the end of our village” they cry, having seen business after business wiped out through lack of support. Well not a Wednesday afternoon it won’t.

Post Offices have to move with the times and repay some of our misguided faith in it. The working week simply doesn’t exist in its old format: we are all working harder and longer and the service sector has to match our movements.

So next time a petition is waved in your face and a worthy villager explains the perils of a Post Office closure, ask what hours it is likely to open before you do.

E-mail may well bring about the death of the English language as we know it, but at least it works 24 hours a day.

By Nathan Rous