For some, e-mail, has taken the place of letter writing. This is because it is so much easiar to send an e-mail than it is to send a letter through the U.S. Mail. E-mail is nearly instantaneous whereas U.S. Mail takes atleast a day or two to get where it's going. Because e-mail is very quick, many businesses have adopted it as their mailing system. The U.S. mail service also charges a small fee depending upon the weight of the letter being sent. E-mail service, on the other hand, is a free service for most home users. For business purposes, e-mail can be used to send letters and attached files to other companies as well as be a wonderful way to exchange inter-office mail. Some offices may have to pay a small fee for extra e-mail capacity, but this fee is far less than it would be to send all of their letters through the U.S. mail service. Because of the invention of e-mail, people are able to send letters to loved ones who live halfway accross the world without having to pay international mailing fees. This has allowed many people to stay in touch, or atleast write more often, than they would have been able or willing to do if there was no e-mail.
Even though e-mail has many positive aspects, like everything else, it has its problems as well. Even though e-mail is basically a secure way to send mail, you never can tell if the person you are sending it to is really the person you think it is. Because of this it is often dangerous to send personal information, such as credit card numbers and social security numbers, over the internet. There are always people out there that would use information like this for illegal activities. Another problem that arises from e-mail is the lack of a hard copy. If a person were to accidentally delete an important e-mail before printing out a hard copy, there would be no way to re-access the e-mail without having the original sender, resend the message.
Though e-mail has its problems, I believe that the positives far outweigh the negatives. E-mail has given people the ability to communicate over large distances in a short time. Most people are able to use the free e-mail services that are offered to the public from many different companies. There are some who will need to upgrade, but the average person will not need to spend any extra money to have e-mail. Not only has email grown in popularity since its introduction to the public, but it also continues to become a safer way to send mail. E-mail has changed drastically since its introduction, and I believe it will continue to change throughout my lifetime. No one knows what the future holds for e-mail, but I believe that it will stay a part of people's lives and continue to change in order to meet the needs of the public.