E-mail- Meaning, advantages and disadvantages

E-MAIL

Electronic mail, most commonly referred to as email or e-mail since approximately 1993, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the same time, in common with instant messaging Today's email systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need to connect only briefly, typically to an email server, for as long as it takes to send or receive messages.

Historically, the term electronic mail was used generically for any electronic document transmission. An Internet email message consists of three components, the message envelope, the message header, and the message body. The message header contains control information, including, minimally, an originator's email address and one or more recipient addresses. Usually descriptive information is also added, such as a subject header field and a message submission date/time stamp.

Advantages of E-mails 

1. E-mails are easy to use. You can organize your daily correspondence, send and receive electronic messages and save them on computers.

2. E-mails are fast. They are delivered at once around the world. No other form of written communication is as fast as an email.

3. The language used in e-mails is simple and informal.

4. When you reply to an email you can attach the original message so that when you answer the recipient knows what you are talking about. This is important if you get hundreds of email a day.

5. It is possible to send automated e-mails with a certain text. In such a way it is possible to tell the sender that you are on vacation. These e-mails are called auto responders..

6. E-mails do not use paper. They are environment friendly and save a lot of trees from being cut down.

7. E-mails can also have pictures in them. You can send birthday cards or newsletters as e-mails.

8. Products can be advertised with e-mails. Companies can reach a lot of people and inform them in a short time. 

Disadvantages of E-mails 

1. E-mails may carry viruses. These are small programs that harm your computer system. They can read out your e-mail address book and send themselves to a number of people around the world. 

2. Many people send unwanted e-mails to others. These are called spam mails. It takes a lot of time to filter out the unwanted e-mails from those that are really important.

3. E-mails cannot really be used for official business documents. They may be lost and you cannot sign them. 

4. Your mailbox may get flooded with e-mails after a certain time so you have to empty it from time to time.