An email is simply the
exchange of digital letters across the World Wide Web. These days to send an
email does not require the person receiving the email to be online however when
the first email started to come around it required both users to be online at
the same time for the email to be sent and received. This is like instant messaging
that is used most frequently every day.
There are two types of protocol
used by email providers:
Imap4 and Pop 3.
The difference between these
two protocols is the way the email is opened on the computer or mobile device.
Pop3- All
the messages and there attachments have to be downloaded to the computer or
mobile device for the mail to be read.
Imap4I- A whole message will be downloaded when the email
is opened to display the content.
There are many advantages to
using emails rather than using more traditional methods such as writing a
letter and sending it to wherever it needs sending too.
One advantage is that it only
takes seconds to send to the person you want to send the email too. Another advantage
is that you don’t need to pay to post it anywhere. Animation could be used in
the email which includes different font’s colours and pictures whereas in
letters it is usually just pure writing. You could get a reply to your email
within minutes whereas in letter it would take days or even weeks.
Sometimes by sending a letter
it may not arrive to the person the letter is sent too.
However there are also disadvantages
to emails. One disadvantage is that you could get a virus on your computer
which could result in the computer being permanently damaged and no longer able
to be used. Another disadvantage is that you can often get spam, cookies
spyware, and phishing and identity theft.
Spam is unwanted emails usually something to do with advertisement.
A cookie is a small file which stores your information related
to the sites you visit on the internet.
Spyware is a computer program that is installed by someone
without permission usually through a virus. Its purpose is to collect data from the person’s
computer the program is installed on.
Phishing is a link on an email which takes you to a website
that looks genuine but is actually fake.
Identity theft is when someone’s personal information (such as bank account
information) is stolen and used for criminal purposes.
Another
disadvantage of sending emails is that sometimes you could send it to the wrong
person and the email could contain personal information.
This is a picture I took of my emails from my IPhone
to show what they look like.
This is a picture of a letter I got from the internet.
