Andrew Leonard, a contributing editor for Newsweek and a senior technology correspondent of the online magazine Salon.com, is the author of the report "We've Got Mail-Always". In the report he describes the conveniences and inconveniences of e-mail. He opens the report by asking, "Is e-mail a blessing or a curse?" He then goes on to list the positive and negative aspects of this question.
Leonard then begins by saying, "Email. Can't live with it, can't live without it." He says that people have flocked to email as they would to any new medium of expression. He believes e-mail is convenient, saves time, brings us closer together, and helps us manage our ever more complex lives. At the same time it is inconvenient, wastes our time, isolates us in front of our computers, and introduces more complexity into our already too-harried lives. .
Eric Allman was the original inventor of e-mail. When he created it he had a whole other purpose in mind. His main purpose in creating e-mail was to allow separate locations to share resources. Allman quoted, "I just wanted to make my life easier.".
Leonard received his first modem from his mother. She bought it for him so he could communicate with her younger brother who had a worsening case of parkinson's disease. He was barely able to write anymore so Leonard's mother figured if everyone had a CompuServe account they would still all be able to communicate. They were surprised how simple a thing as e-mail could bring us closer to those whom we love.
Jenn Shreve, a freelance writer in the San Francisco Bay Area, says e-mail just makes everything easier. From falling in love to writing a letter to peers at the office, e-mail removes the shyness from an individual. "It serves as a buffer zone," she states.
Leonard says that if kids are spending more time online writing and less in front of the television, one could argue that the digital age has raised the curtains on a new age of literacy.