Blog Post #4
Ray Tomlinson was a computer programmer who invented the first email in 1971. Tomlinson used the ARPANET system to create the first email which at the time was the precursor to the internet. ARPANET was the first system that was able to send mail to other users on different hosts of the ARPANET. The development of the @ sign, which was the code needed to separate the names of the users and the users machine, was the key to the first email being invented and is the reason that email was successfully invented. The problem that Ray Tomlinson was trying to solve with the invention of email was to provide an alternative and more efficient mode of communication for people.
The circumstances behind creating the first email were such that users on the internet could share files, and messages on a central log in disk, logging in from remote terminals. In the decades leading up to the invention of email, Tomlinson observed that people were no longer just sitting at desks and working from 9 to 5 each day. His observations led him to recognize that an alternative mode of communication would benefit employers and workers and would ultimately create a more flexible and more efficient work environment. By creating email, people could have a different form of communication if they did not have enough time to talk on the phone.
Tomlinson greatly increased the usefulness of computers to such a new level that computers quickly became accessible to the general public. In addition, the invention of email has changed our world by creating a new form of communication for people around the world while simultaneously increasing the use of computers. As the world has progressed since the first email, email has also gone through a significant transformation as well. Email has become the preferred mode of communication for corporations, industries, governments, as well as most private and personal entities. Email is now how families and friends alike, stay in touch. Email has now become a primary way for people to send invitations for parties, documents for work, provide status updates, or just saying a quick hello to someone they haven’t talked to in a while.
Creating email changed the world because it “drastically” reduced traditional mail while also increasing the flow of information. An example of this is how people began receiving electronic bills. Bills used to be delivered through our postal service. When email was created, corporations and other entities started using email to send people or customers bills. This is much more efficient than waiting for the postal service to deliver your bills and then to retrieve and deliver bills via traditional mail. It greatly reduced the number of lost bills and lost payments.
Email has drastically changed the way in which people communicate. We no longer pick up the phone to communicate but instead we communicate electronically via email. After the first email came out all different forms of electronic communication were developed. However, as it is with all new inventions, problems develop. The largest complaint people have with email is what is called spam mail. Spam mail is unsolicited email which is typically advertisements but it can also be harmful to people. Some spam can confuse people into spending or sending money and it generally can cloud worthy information from being seen.
Another negative effect of email is the issue of personal privacy. Over the years, certain email providers have taken the private/personal information of its users and sold it to data gatherers without the permission of the users. Also, all emails are archived so what people may think is “private communication” can also be available for people who breach personal privacy, or hack into a person’s email.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/07/email-ray-tomlinson-history
http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/email.html
http://students.cs.uri.edu/~forensics/courses/CSC101/innovation_example/impacts.html
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