Email vs Regular mail

What are the differences between email and regular mail?


     I think the most significant difference between email and regular mail is time.  An email is an almost instantaneous method to communicate with someone.  The only real delay is that the receiving person must access his email service in order to read his email.  Any response to the email follows in the same vein.  Conventional mail services require the physical pickup and delivery of the mail and are time dependent on the type of service used and the distance between the sender and receiver.  Both mail services have associated costs.  An email program is something that must be purchased for personal use, usually bundled in the software used to access the internet, and then a fee must be paid for internet access.  Regular mail has the costs of the writing instrument, the paper written upon, the envelope, and the required postage for delivery.  Addressing for an email must be specific and with no error or the email will not be able to be delivered.  Regular mail is more forgiving as an error in the address can sometimes be corrected by the delivery service if an obvious mistake has been made.



What were some of the barriers to people adopting email?


     The biggest barrier to adopting email was that a person had to purchase a computer, understand how to connect it to the internet and then successfully utilize the required programs to send the email.  As soon as a person learned the process, they realized email could be used as an efficient tool for communication.  Another barrier to email was the lack of understanding of the potential that there was in its use.  Once people realized what a timesaving process using email was, it became a common method for communication.