A Guide to E-mail

An Introduction to Electronic Mail

Electronic mail, which is usually abbreviated to 'e-mail' or 'email', is a popular digital messaging service. The history of E-mail predates the beginning of the Internet. The genesis of the Internet was ARPANET, a computer network linking major educational and government institutions in the early 1970's. E-mail was a core component of this network, and largely kept it's design format when ARPANET converted to the Internet in the 1980's.

The exact start date of E-mail is murky, it's been suggested it was around 1966, when MIT were developing CTSS. But, without question, it was the ARPANET computer network that contributed to the development and showcased E-mail. E-mail first piggy backed on the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Eventually stand alone protocols were developed for E-mail, such as IMAP, POP3, SMTP, UUCP and X400. However, the key components of an E-mail have remained the same, such as the message header and body. The abbreviated spelling of electronic mail has a few variations,

Email: required by IETF Request for Comments.
E-mail: a journalistic technical style.
Mail: the original RFC form.
eMail: was common during ARPANET.
EMail: has been used in RFCs.

Research has suggested that E-mail has changed the landscape of social relationships. One of the positive benefits of E-mail is in business. The expense of sending E-mail globally is tiny compared to other modes of communication. Therefore, contacting potential customers is cheaper than it once was.

The convenience of E-mail is another positive aspect of the technology. With different countries operating on various time zones, a telephone call may not be possible due to the time schedule of that nation. But, an E-mail can be held within a mailbox for the recipient to open at an appropriate time.

The effect of E-mail has not been without it's problems however. The overload of data can lead to frustration due to it's time consumption. E-mail is also abused by unscrupulous individuals, unsolicited messages is one such abuse, attachments with viruses another, spoofing/faking an E-mail address/ source another and bombing an individual address with a large volume of E-mail's can close down the account.