Email Day

Laptop keyboard. Internet image

It's National Email Day, recognizing Ray Tomlinson, who is credited with creating email in 1971. He sent a message from his computer to another and came up with @ to separate the user's name and the computer's address, later that became the browser used by the recipient.

My dad's work included some of the first desktop computers. I don't recall talking with him about email, but I suspect he probably sent a few emails early on. 

I was introduced to email when I became a TV reporter in Madison in 1989.  I believe it was TRS-80 Model. The screen was two-inches high and 10-inches wide. That wasn't a big problem, because there were no pictures, just writing. It was also an in-house message system, or that's all we used it for.

My first email may have been on AOL, which we subscribed to in the early days of the internet. My first email address is one I'm still using, 33 years later.

Just think back to your early days sending messages to friends and family electronically. Back then, I wrote primarily to family and a few friends. Those early days were before I was on any social media.

In the first ten years using email, there wasn't much spam in the inbox. The first ones I remember getting attention, were emails from royalty in a small country asking the reader to open a bank account to help the royal move their money to America, and for their help, they would get a commission. The scammers and pfishers online are high-tech these days and more difficult to decipher, so be sure you check and double-check before opening attachments or follow a link.

Letters and messages sent via email started moving to text messaging through a phone or direct messaging system through social media. I'll use both options depending on the purpose, but still prefer an email if I think it will be longer than two or three sentences.

You might have won a lot of money, if back in the early 1970s you bet someone that in less than 50 years, sending letters would disappear. Between text and email, using the telephone and stationary seems quaint and vintage.

I don't disagree, but there is something about receiving a hand-written and addressed note from a friend that will mean to you than an instant email. You might even save it!

If you have thoughts on this, you can enter a comment below. I get notifications of comments, you may have guessed, by email.