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E-mail |
Fax |
Mail |
Pigeon Post |
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E-mail is how digital messages are exchanged. Messages are stored in a server much like a mailbox and are retrieved by the users using their email address. It is also the easy way to tell someone something you don't want to in person. But it is also the snail mail of electronics. One time I had three hundred messages in my inbox that I never read. If anyone wanted to tell me something, e-mail was just not the way to do it. There have been rumors that e-mail will one day become obsolete, but thinking about it, and even if I don't use it much, this is not possible becasue it is the backbone of all electronic communication. If you lose a password to a website, it will be sent to your e-mail.
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A fax is much like a copier, except that the scanning mechanism is in one place, while the printing mechanism is in another (or vice-versa). The messages travel over a phone line, but how convenient are they? Well, they get documents from one place to another very quickly if not legibly all the time. Plus, they're supposed to be user-friendly, but they're actually rather difficult to maneuver. Also, if you have one it is very convenient, but if you don't, you have to find a place that will charge you a fee to send a document, and if it's closed then you're pretty much done for.
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Mail or the post is distinguished by the fact that it is a physical object that is being sent. It can be public or private (think USPS vs Fedex). A lot of people now though, don't use it to communicate with one another now that we're in the electronic age, but it is used to mail important papers like credit card statements and the credit cards themselves. I must say that whenever I receive letters from companies, even if it's that spam mail where they want you to get such and such credit card, it makes me feel special, like I'm on someone's list. I think it boils down to receiving something through a medium that is rarely used, it is a thoughtful gesture.
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Pigeon post is using pigeons trained for homing for sending messages. Ancient people from the Persians to the Romans used this to communicate with one another. It must have been extremely helpful, but today pigeon post is cute. It's like an ex-boyfriend, where it gets old but it's still cute to think about and look at. Times have changed and people now realize there are better things out there. You start thinking about it, and you think "why" it was like that guy who thought speaking in Halo language was awesome.
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