A man walks into a bar... Why blondes are stupid... What a woman really means when she says... Has anybody seen my pen? No, I haven't gone all Virginia Woolf on you. This isn't my stream of consciousness, it's what you're likely to find in your email in-tray when you return to work after a two-week holiday.

And your heart sinks as you scroll down 328 unread messages. Two hours later you're still working your way through them: inane jokes, inane responses to inane jokes, inane responses to the responses.

Occasionally, you'll come across something of import: a date for a meeting, a message from a client, a reminder that you've got an appraisal next week.

By the time you've stored and deleted where appropriate, it's lunchtime. Start work and every thought will be interrupted by that familiar ping, as another email drops into your in-tray.

Steven Roberts, a freelance copywriter, is concerned by the impact email has had on office communication. "Recently," he recalls, "I was working in the offices of a large television company. Nobody spoke to each other - virtually all information was communicated by email. Several times, I announced to my boss that I'd finished a job, only to be told to repeat this information by email and then to await my next instructions by email too. And my boss was sitting right next to me!"

I'm old enough (just) to remember the days before email became a ubiquitous feature in the workplace. The days when people spoke to each other, arranged meetings using diaries and only asked the appropriate person if they had a query, not the entire company.

I'm not a Luddite. I can navigate my way round the web, possess a fax and a mobile phone and, as I write this, digital television is being installed in my living room. But I can't be the only person who feels that email is taking over the office, at the cost of conversation and efficiency.

According to the experts, I'm being alarmist. Psychologist Guy Fielding, a communications specialist at Oxford University, does not agree that email is replacing other forms of office communication. "Most people mistakenly believe in the substitution model for how communication channels work," he says. "We think that when a new form of communication comes along it eliminates the others - the telephone, for example, stops people travelling to see each other or writing letters.

"There's a lot of evidence that this isn't the case. In fact, people who use the telephone the most also travel the most - and every year the number of letters sent increases by 5% to 10%."

Guy believes all channels of communication work as a network, feeding each other. For example, the person you're most likely to telephone is someone you already know face to face. And phonecalls are often made to set up face-to-face meetings.

"When you introduce a new communications medium like email, it has more of an impact on how the other channels are used, not on whether they're used," he states. "People shift some of their activity out of the old channels but continue to use them, but only for the purpose best suited to them."

The problem is that this process can take time. When a new medium is first introduced, people get a little over-excited about its potential, which leads to overuse - hence the flurry of email jokes, chain letters and inane messages wending their way around your office.

Blame it on the innovators of the system, says Guy. "Naturally, they claim it's the system to replace all other systems, but that's not true. In the first flush of enthusiasm people try to do everything using the new medium.

"After a while they learn it doesn't work. When they return to the old systems, their use is refined because they've added another channel of communication. Email is not destructive of other forms of communication. In fact, it probably has the opposite effect."

Adam Joinson, a psychologist at the Open University, says that far from inhibiting or disrupting office communication, email has many benefits. "It's a great tool for brainstorming, decision-making and getting diverse groups in organisations - such as marketing and accounts - to talk to each other. If someone puts you on the spot by asking a question, you may answer rashly.

But using email gives you the time to craft a sensible, articulate response. It's also a great aid to memory: rather than reminding people one by one of a meeting organised weeks ago, you can send a single email."

Adam believes that we tend to over-emphasise how great face-to-face communication is. "When you listen to people talking face-to-face, most of it is not as coherent as you'd expect. In speech, a lot is implied. But in writing you have to focus on your message and spell it out."

Adam has just completed a study comparing levels of self-disclosure in email and face-to-face communication. In the first part of the study, people using a computer chat programme were compared with a group talking face to face. Observers rated how many times they self-disclosed in the course of the conversation. The result? The people using email disclosed four times as much as those conversing face-to-face.

The second part of the study compared email users with those using email and a video-conferencing camera. Again, those who couldn't see each other disclosed more. "Being able to see each other actually reduces the amount of social communication," says Adam. "When they can't see each other, people are more focused and less concerned about being judged. We spend a lot of time focusing on controlling our non-verbal communication - maintaining eye contact, the way we sit, the tone of our voice etc. When using email we can concentrate on the message, not the way we present it."

Email is a great tool for breaking down boundaries. Disability, accent, ethnic origin, dress sense and attractiveness become irrelevant. Instead - and this is the downside - we are judged on the speed of our response and our way with words.

Adam says workers need to be trained in email use. "Research has shown that people who have problems with the amount of emails coming in don't know how to organise them into folders. People aren't properly trained in who to send messages to, or basic email etiquette - like not sending jokes or requests to everyone. Bosses should teach their staff to only check their emails a certain number of times per day so they're not constantly being interrupted."

Many workplaces are cracking down on email use, by forbidding chain emails and personal messages. Adam says that it's important to maintain a balance, so that the social benefits of email aren't lost. "If email use is too tightly controlled, it will stop brainstorming and the forming of communities."