Cognitive Reference - Mail & eMail

The idea that new inventions are named to evoke previous knowledge in consumers is quite interesting to me. Cloud storage gives us the idea that it's up in the air like a cloud. Notebook laptops perhaps give us an idea of their size or main purpose. Most notably, email gives us the idea that it's very similar to regular mail. Both are methods of communication but vary greatly in cost and speed. Emails are sent and received almost instantaneously, while postal mail can take days depending on distance. Postal mail can be used to deliver physical objects such as money, checks, even packages of stuff, whereas email can only send digital information. Photos can be sent through email without needing to be printed out, saving money. Email can be used to communicate the same message to many people without the need to mail multiple letters. Emails can send links that can be easily navigated to through the receiving party's computer, whereas a link sent through postal mail would have to be manually typed in. Although email has many advantages over postal mail, it seems that, at least within the foreseeable future, email could become obsolete while postal mail would not. Instant messaging systems are now being used as a more practical way to quickly communicate while email is left as sort of a formal communication system, used in schools and in businesses. It's possible that we will see some service combining the these two into a universal communication system under a different name entirely. This is, at least, more likely than teleportation being invented to send large physical items and packages around the countries. For a long time to come, we should expect to still have postal mail to send gifts to our relatives or even shipping companies to bring us our impulse-bought items online. Although it's truly unlike that any drastic changes with mail or email will happen anytime soon, we have to consider how fast technology movies and how quickly aspects of it grow out of date. Only time will tell.