Email vs Snail Mail

How is the physical mail system similar and different to digital email? To start, email was designed with many of the same concepts and protocols as conventional mail to make it understandable. To mail a letter one must place it in a mailbox with an address destination and a return address. The mail carrier then picks it up and brings it to a post office where it is then brought to a mail distribution center and sent to the intended zip code and address. Similarly, to send an email the message goes from one user’s address to the website mail server which is like a big post office which then sends it to the local mail server of the recipient’s address.

Both services come with scams and spam advertisements that take advantage of the importance we put on them. There is mail fraud when people steal other people’s letters in the real world and hacking when people steal emails from people digitally.

While much of the etymology has remained mostly the same the word email has become its own word for the messages sent so you can say. "I have so many emails" and "I have so much mail" but not vice versa.

Some differences are that email is an almost instant messaging platform without the requirement of human intermediates once the system is set up. Mail requires stamps to pay for its passage which may explain its decline in popularity.


            The replication of tried and tested features that the public is used to while adding new methods only possible through the internet is what I believe makes email what it is today.

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