BRING BACK EMAILS AS A FORM OF COMMUNICATION
Let's take it back from marketers and spammers!
This thought popped into my head last night. Ever since starting Bear Blog, I've been receiving emails from fellow bloggers, and it reminds me of my penpal days, when we used to send snail mail to complete strangers—usually on the other side of the world—simply to connect.
But before starting this post, I did a quick search on Bear Blog's discovery to see if anyone else has written on the subject. Sure enough, Sebastian wrote a post titled, "Emails Are Making Me Happy Again," which perfectly summarizes all of my thoughts. So rather than just repeat what he wrote, I'll add on another take:
Texting isn't the best way to communicate detailed information.
We have many forms of communication at our disposal today, and I believe each has its purpose. Texting is great for casual chatting or even long-winded conversations. But texting really fails at sending useful chunks of information. In fact, if I received a bunch of links and info via text, I might find it overwhelming, but I'd mostly just FORGET about it. I mainly use Whatsapp, and while you can star specific messages, it's not the best at saving information, and most of the time, I simply just don't remember that it's there.
But emails!
You could send all that info in one go. It could be a list of links, an essay, or even span multiple threads. But it's all there, bundled together by an appropriately titled subject line. Emails are there forever, and even for an unorganized inbox, one can simply search via keywords, which isn't as easy to do on Whatsapp.
I'm one of those people with only one email for everything. I mostly shop online, so I appreciate emails when my order has shipped. I worry that if I had multiple accounts, I'd forget to to check them. And if I forwarded all of those emails to my main... Well, what's the point of having multiple accounts in the first place?!
On the topic of emails, I am also keen on de-Googling my life. However, it's difficult and will take some time. I would also need to do some research, and right now, looking into email clients is not on my priority list.
(Perhaps I will make a list of the tech and apps I use. I love seeing what other people I using, and I get a little bit more techy each day.)
So, echoing the words of my fellow Bear Bloggers who love receiving emails, I love them too! I used to spend time organizing my inbox, but ever since it fell by way of marketers, I stopped caring. Now, I feel motivated to do so.
Also, remember when we used to send email chains? I don't miss that format, but that's when I first started seeing content like, "25 facts about me," etc. etc.
Not only are more and more people yearning for the analog life, we're also collectively yearning for the early days of the internet, back when it was messy, imperfect, and clearly made by humans.