Blind Copy – Calculate how “BAD” of a person you are!

Bet you didn't know what BCC stands for….Blind Carbon Copy. But Blind Carbon Copy is not what you get when you fill out the BCC field in any email.  There is nothing carbon about your BCC.

Bet you DO know what BCC is used for!  It’s used to deceive.  BCC is a condoned form of human behavior that promotes deception.  Does anyone truly even ask themselves whether their BCC’s are intended for any other purpose other than to deceive? 

Now, I do it, and you do it. Everybody does it.  BCC, BCC, BCC! The field is permanently imbedded on most every email template waiting to be filled as a tempting lure to promote deception.   And clearly the nefarious motives of those using this easy to use, assessable form of communication are facilitated by the nearly mindless procedure of adding anyone and everyone to the email BCC field.  Ask yourself the question – When you are sending an email, who are you speaking to – the recipient in the To: field, or to the recipient in the BCC: field, or maybe both?

Indeed, there may be a legitimate purpose for using BCC – to avoid identifying others being sent a group email by sending the email to yourself, with the intended recipients listed in the BCC field.  That strategy may or may not work depending upon the email program being used….some programs will identify all BCC recipients…..maybe a good idea to test your program before being so sure you are deceiving who you believe you are deceiving. However, the intention here when using the BCC option is to protect the email addresses of the recipients of a mass email…this certainly seems a legitimate use.  It also has the potential benefit of thwarting an email recipient from sending a needless “reply to all” response.  Truly, nothing in the virtual world of the internet bothers me more than receiving a mass of inane emails - almost on a daily basis - by those self absorbed morons who have the gall to believe that everyone would/should be interested in their two word responses.

But to be sure, I expect that the majority of BCC’d emails are intended not to protect other humans, but rather to denigrate them.  (In saying this, maybe I’m looking from within.)  Ask yourself: do you think it would be proper to have someone listen in from another room to a conversation you are having with someone in your confidence?  How is that different than sending a BCC?  Even if someone just put some thought into the question before doing it; to BCC or not BCC…but NO… people just BCC all of the time, freely, wantonly and without restraint. 

Sidebar:  I remember the simpler times of the past.  My first research paper (J Pediatr. 1978 Jun;92 (6):989-94)  was typed on a typewriter with two pages sandwiching a sheet of carbon paper in order to produce a copy for the journal as well as a pre-copied record for myself.  This was done as protection for the paper somehow being displaced or lost.  The journal required very specific margins and that the manuscript be double spaced.  Truly, as difficult as it was for me to complete this very mediocre first research study in my career, the agony of typing it was what I remember.  The carbon paper residue oozed on my hands and clothes.  And typing on an unforgiving Underwood typewriter with a small supply of white-out to bail me out of any mistake was a harrowing experience.   I remember reading what I thought was the final draft, discovering a typo on one of the early pages that affected the subsequent 12 pages of perfectly done type.  To this day, I can still feel the anguish in having to retype the remaining pages, cautiously and tentatively tapping every keystroke to avoid any further errors that would force me to repeat the experience..  It was truly like walking a tight rope, any misstep was potentially fatal. 

When I think of carbon copies, I think of the above experience in 1977.  The world has certainly changed.  So, for lack of anything better to do on this Saturday morning, I devised a simple gauge of goodness, the BCC FACTOR, in order to quantitate the level of nefarious activity associated with BCC.   In this factor the lower the number, the more GOOD you are.  The range is 0-very good to 100 – very bad.  I calculated my GOODNESS factor at 2.  My number is pretty good, better than I thought it would be quite frankly. 

To calculate your goodness factor, review at least 100 emails sent by you – easily done by scrolling down your sent box.  I actually reviewed 200 emails in calculating my GOODNESS factor.  The average number of email that you sent with a BCC per 100 email is the BCC factor. 

Are you good, or are you bad?  When people are asked anything now-a-days, a common response is – No, I’m good.  But are they good.  Only their email sent box knows for sure!