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Email Is 40 Years Old

from the 40-years-young dept

Mon, Oct 17th 2011 3:41pm — Mike Masnick

For a few years now, we've been joking about how email is for old people. Studies have increasingly been showing that the younger generation prefers text messaging, instant messaging and various social networking private message systems to good old fashioned email. So it's worth noting that sometime this month, email apparently turned 40 years old. So perhaps it's showing its age, which is why the kids today don't bother with it.

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Filed Under: email, history

30 Comments

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Keith_Emperor_of_Penguins (profile), 17 Oct 2011 @ 3:58pm

E-mail is so old now
it has turned into regular mail for the younger generation.
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UVShane, 17 Oct 2011 @ 4:04pm

Re: E-mail is so old now
Especially now that UPS can send any package via email. ;)
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Paul (profile), 17 Oct 2011 @ 4:21pm

I think it's conception was 40 years ago...
... it required another 11 years before it was born in any form that people could use widely across a wide range of hardware and software. This took SMTP, and SMTP was defined in RFC 821 in 1982.

That is when I would claim email was born.
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TheStupidOne, 17 Oct 2011 @ 4:24pm

Re: Re: E-mail is so old now
UPS? So last century. I added my replicator address to my amazon account last year. Free one hour shipping from anywhere in the world!
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Ron Rezendes (profile), 17 Oct 2011 @ 4:27pm

Re: I think it's conception was 40 years ago...
guarantee there is an IP troll out there that would probably file suit for even suggesting the reality of the situation.

You should be receiving something from their attorney in 3...2...1...
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Keith_Emperor_of_Penguins (profile), 17 Oct 2011 @ 4:27pm

Re: Re: Re: E-mail is so old now
pffft, you call that advanced?
I use a tachyons modem. I get all my packages before I order them.
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Krish (profile), 17 Oct 2011 @ 4:57pm

I use a tachyons modem. I get all my packages before I order them.

My neutrino modem was supposed to do that too but it looks like it was just hype.
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 17 Oct 2011 @ 5:03pm

Re: Neutrinos?
Those neutrinos probably were delivering the packages, but they passed right by your address without stopping. You know you need something like 1250 tons of lead just to get one of them to notice you once in a while?
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Jim_G, 17 Oct 2011 @ 5:05pm

Oh yeah, tachyons modems. I remember those. Nowadays I just use a quantum model configured for the "Many-Worlds" interpretation. All possible version of myself receive every possible package.

Much better than the old "Schr�dinger's cat" models, because then all my packages were simultaneously broken and non-broken. Very confusing until the wave function collapsed into one state.
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Christopher (profile), 17 Oct 2011 @ 5:21pm

E-mail is slow compared to IRC, instant messaging, etc. That is why most people won't bother with it, they want instant gratification.

Add into this that regular e-mail without encryption is unsafe, and you have another reason why it is unpopular.
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Gracey (profile), 17 Oct 2011 @ 5:49pm

These days my packages come stamped with "Delivery by Starship Enterprise"...but my messages still come by emai and even (gasp) telephone.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2011 @ 5:54pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: E-mail is so old now
I use an object reconstruction printer. I get my packages delivered via the Internet and printed out via my 3D printer.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2011 @ 6:41pm

I guess im young, 23 :D. Don't use email except for official type business, between friends NEVER, hell, don't know most my friends emails. Also, we hate grammer
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 17 Oct 2011 @ 7:10pm

Re: I think it's conception was 40 years ago...
>... it required another 11 years before it was born in any form that people could use widely across a wide range of hardware and software. This took SMTP, and SMTP was defined in RFC 821 in 1982.

And another decade before everyone got onboard with that. Remember UUCP?
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2011 @ 7:19pm

Re: Re: Re: E-mail is so old now
http://fabathome.org/
http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

Did you print that already?
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2011 @ 7:28pm

I tried to create an email the other day, holly mother of God, what the hell did I get myself into.

I took a beating from the captcha's, and after 10 or 15 tries I got it right.

I hope I'm not the only old dude who have problems with the distorted images in a 24" screen.
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Yakko Warner (profile), 17 Oct 2011 @ 7:56pm

I still find it odd...
I still find it odd when someone refers to email as "old-fashioned".
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2011 @ 8:07pm

Re:
When you have nothing of consequence to say, Facebook / Texting / Twitter will do just fine. To folks like that, writing an email must feel like writing an essay.
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Rekrul, 17 Oct 2011 @ 8:23pm

Re:
Also, we hate grammer

Yes, your message demonstrates that.
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Rekrul, 17 Oct 2011 @ 8:37pm

Re:
I tried to create an email the other day, holly mother of God, what the hell did I get myself into.

I took a beating from the captcha's, and after 10 or 15 tries I got it right.

I hope I'm not the only old dude who have problems with the distorted images in a 24" screen.

Captchas for email?

Web sites like Hotmail and Gmail are just web interfaces to the email system. There are many stand-alone email programs that run on your computer and connect to the mail servers directly, such as Mozilla Thunderbird. They can even be configured to work with Gmail and probably Hotmail.

When sending email with these programs, there's no captcha to deal with. Sometimes when I send a message through Gmail, it asks me to re-type my password, but that's all. My ISP email address never asks since I told it to save the password.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2011 @ 9:15pm

Re: Re:
You are right of course, after it is created there is none, but they do ask for it for the creation of it.
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John Mahoney, 18 Oct 2011 @ 4:55am

Re: Re:
I hate Kelsey Grammer too!
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Ninja (profile), 18 Oct 2011 @ 5:50am

Old doesn't mean outdated ;)

And kids nowadays don't know the fun of adding a bunch of your friends in the To: field and doing a mail chat ;)

The kids also don't have issues with their workplaces blocking everything but their mails lmao

E-mail ftw ;)
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Oct 2011 @ 6:50am

Re:
This entire thread has made my morning.

Did you opt for the Heisenberg package tracking option?
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Hephaestus (profile), 18 Oct 2011 @ 6:55am

Re:
"Much better than the old "Schr�dinger's cat" models, because then all my packages were simultaneously broken and non-broken. Very confusing until the wave function collapsed into one state."

Next time buy the Schr�dinger shipping insurance, it will either be paid out ... or not. And for some reason they don't insure cats.
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ibaconi (profile), 18 Oct 2011 @ 8:03am

Snail mail would still be the vogue if you could write one letter, send it to all your friends and their friends and so on, automatically. Come on, it evolution of another art form!
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Slicerwizard, 18 Oct 2011 @ 6:47pm

Re:
"Also, we hate grammer"

And spelling, obviously.
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Rekrul, 20 Oct 2011 @ 5:25pm

Re: Re: Re:
You are right of course, after it is created there is none, but they do ask for it for the creation of it.

Not even for the creation of it, if you use a local email client instead of webmail.
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andromaster (profile), 21 Oct 2012 @ 10:00am

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[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Jan 2016 @ 6:56am

my penis and brain both hurt today
[ link to this | view in thread ]