E-mail

Electronic  mail, called e-mail was started in the late 1960’s by the armed forces of the United States of America. The army or military officers were looking for a way that communication could be carried out in the event of large-scale nuclear war. They needed a system that would be very decentralized, reliable, and fast in case central institution were destroyed. They came up with e-mail.

In the early 1970’s, e-mail was limited to the United States military, defense contractors and universities doing defense research. By the 1970’s it had begun to spread more broadly within university communities. By the 1980’s, academics in a number of university disciplines were using e-mail for professional collaboration. The early 1990’s saw an explosion of the use of e-mail and other computer networking tools for a wide range of professional, academic, and personal purpose. Whereas a few thousand people were using e-mail in 1980, it was estimated that in 2000, more than 25 million people throughout the word were using it.

E-mail is a way of sending a message from one computer  to one or more computers around the word. First, you write down the e-mail address of the person you’re sending the message to. Then you compose the message, either by writing it directly in special e-mail software programs or by writing it first in word processing program, then transferring it into the e-mail software. You push a button to issue a simple command to send the message. The computer system you’re connected to will break the message up into tiny pieces and send them electronically to the destination, usually over common telephone lines. The pieces might travel through different routes to various computers on the way. Then, usually within two to three minutes, the pieces will all arrive at their destination, where the receiving computer will re-assemble them into a message that can be read. The person receiving the messages can then log into his or her computer account at a convenient time and read the mail.

Today, in Sri Lanka, many professional, especially those in urban areas, use e-mail. It’s very useful and cheaper than making telephone calls. While overseas telephone are very expensive, e-mail messages can be sent to the same people at a fraction of the cost. Of course, both parties must have access to computers and telephones. The main problem with e-mail is that it’s so dependent on telephone lines and electricity, that in developing countries like ours, it’s not totally reliable because you never know when the telephones will be out of order, or when there’ll be a power cut. But as far as personal messages are concerned, e-mail is quicker an cheaper than other methods such as the telephone or ‘snail mail’