From: raytomlinson@ ... message that launched email

COMPUTER programmer Ray Tomlinson started a revolution when he used the ARPANET system to send the first email back in 1971 to a friend sitting at another computer in the same office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The message, which Tomlinson said was so forgettable that he soon forgot it, is thought to have read something like ‘QUERTYUIOP’. Tomlinson was also the first to use the @ symbol to separate the name of the user from their machine.

Four decades later, the email has well and truly taken over from traditional letter writing for many of us, although we would never talk about the gentle art of email writing. A straw poll of office colleagues reveals that most had not handwritten any communication beyond a birthday card in years – and some said their handwriting had deteriorated badly for lack of proper usage. In the population of Yorkshire generally, 48 per cent had not written a letter in more than six months

According to data crunched by Sky Broadband, for many of us emails have also taken over from phone calls, with 51 per cent in this region preferring to send an electronic message than actually talk to a colleague.

Just over a quarter of us – more than in any other UK region – access emails on the move via mobile phone. In addition to the 247bn emails we send daily, a billion messages are sent on Twitter every week and there are 500m active Facebook users – proving that the internet and social networking have become permanently integrated into the fabric of our lives.

Little could Tim Berners-Lee, the British man who created the World Wide Web in 1989, have guessed that 22 years later 71 per cent of UK homes would have a broadband connection, or that the average Brit spends 4.5 hours a day surfing the web. The wags at Sky Broadband have studied internet usage and say that each of us fall into one of four “tribes” based on our surfing habits. You may be a gregarious Competent Connector who is comfortable across different networking media, or a Savvy Saver, who simply uses available technology swiftly and economically to organise your busy life; the Expert Explorer takes up every new Web development to make life more interesting and fun, and the Download Demon uses their finger on the pulse of the Web to keep up with every new sensation in popular culture.

As some devotees of new technology – often led by the younger end of the age range – race to espouse every new ripple of the new media wave, many others have only relatively recently become completely comfortable with email. Maybe in another couple of years this group will dare to tweet.

Email as a technology is not yet old hat by a long chalk, says Stephen Lax, senior lecturer in communications technology at Leeds University. His last handwritten letter was sent so long ago he can’t remember it. “I don’t think people have or will move on from email any time soon, as it is so useful in replicating what we used to do using letters, phones and even telegrams, and is tremendous not just for communicating with both individuals and groups.

“The difference between email and social media like facebook and twitter is that it’s not instant, so you have more of an element of control, because you choose to look at them and respond when you like.”

The rapid advances of communications, particularly via mobile phones, mean that the more techo-savvy in the population rush headlong to embrace the next thing and don’t necessarily always consider any disadvantages they might entail, says Dr Lax. “The kind of new applications now being used on phones to pinpoint where you are and tell you about services you can use in that area, such as cinemas, theatres or certain kinds of shop mean your movements are known and people are not really aware of how the information gathered by GPS technology may be used, if only in an aggregated way. We enjoy the advantages of the service offered perhaps without necessarily reading terms and conditions and considering privacy.”

Dr Lax says the 24/7 nature of e-communications means we can have a permanent presence in cyberspace. Should we worry about what the constant traffic of communication means our children’s attention span and even their sleep?

“I don’t think so. People saw the intrusiveness of the telephone as a potential evil when it arrived, and the same was said of daytime TV. The arguments now are the same; we just have new ways of thinking about what communication is.”

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