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this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2024
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Showerthoughts
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I don't remember the last time I actually emailed someone I knew as a form of communication. I forward newsletters to my wife sometimes. The culture of texting, where you can take your time to respond (within a day or two), has kind of made email obsolete.
I remember when Whatsapp started taking off here in Europe. Everyone was like "you can text for free now, even send media, it all just works over the internet." And I always said "well isn't it just the same as email? Your smartphone can do that anyway, what do you need WA for?" and I still kinda feel like that.
Someone was complaining with me today that they weren't able to leave me a voice mail (because I intentionally didn't set it up). Like who the fuck still uses that shit? I knew they called and when they called, it's in my log and I also had a notification. What more do I need to know? Text me ya lunatic!
Email is still really useful when you have a lot to say but don't want to write a letter. If I'm catching up on the last several weeks with my parents, I'm not going to write a 10-page text. I can write a nicely formatted email and attach a few photos, though. It's far more convenient than writing a letter and stuffing a bunch of printed photos into an envelope.
That's a good point. I guess if I'm in the situation where I have a lot to say; I'd rather just talk on the phone with someone. Now that I think of it, I feel like the telephone replaced physical letters before email even came along. But, I do highly respect the long-form communication of letters and email. It's just kind of rare these days.
Exactly. The need/desire to write longer form like this may not come up as often with other more immediate means to communicate, but when it does, email's there to serve its purpose.
You don’t email for work reasons or for setting up appointments? My job doesn’t even involve email but I get emails from my boss from time to time and for me to make appointments with certain things I have to do it over email…
Oh I definitely email at work. I meant in my personal life. Like, I can't remember the last time I emailed a friend or family member. But yeah I email at work, or for customer support, or to businesses and whatnot.
The most popular method of communication mentioned in the scientific papers I've had to read (pretty small sample) is email, so it's not fully obsolete