This was a few years before the World Wide Web even existed. Many of you probably don't know that in the early days you could only send e-mail to others who subscribed to the same Internet service provider that you did. A CompuServe subscriber could only send e-mail to other CompuServe subscribers, but not to members of Genie or Prodigy. At first you had to have a fair amount of tech savvy just to load and use the software for e-mail. Now it is estimated that six billion e-mail messages were sent last year.
Business now runs on e-mail communication.
E-mail communications have many advantages over other forms of communications. It is faster than traditional mail and cheaper than a long distance call. Interestingly, e-mail is also widely popular because it is considered to be so polite. A ringing phone interrupts other activities. A fax machine lets the recipient bear the cost of the paper for your communications.