Personal Email is Magic🔮 json.blog
@jsonbecker I’m with you in this one. Spam + work process may spoil its reputation, but boring email, like boring RSS, is still a great tool for communication.
@jsonbecker All my friends and even acquaintances have stopped using email for personal communication.
A few years back, even when messaging apps were available, we used to have huge threads, sometimes one word emails, going back and forth while we were sitting in the newsroom, all facing our computers. Assignment requests, random stuff, everything was done with email. I actually enjoyed it.
These days I can go for months without a personal message. Apps have taken over.
@maique That’s such a shame. I’m not even against using the apps, just opposed to over-reliance on any one particular thing. In this particular instance, apps come with a base level of financial (latest hardware, software) and ethical (accounts with certain platforms, use of proprietary systems) investment when compared to technology built with open protocols.
@simonwoods You are right on those issues.
As far as I can tell, with this bunch of people, it's mostly about how practical it is. We've talked about it in the past, but the ethical part is something most people don't even consider, no matter how many time I've tried to have that conversation. Financially, it's not an issue also, even older sets support the messenger of choice here.
People tend to go for the easier way, and it can't get much easier than that.
@jsonbecker I agree with this 100%! Two examples (for me); 1) The Watercolor Gallery interviews all happened because I simply sent a short email asking artists nicely if I could interview them. Nearly all have said yes. 2) People I don't know email me from my blog and I love it.
@maique this is my lived reality as well, and I think it's significantly worse than the world of 2001-2012 ish, where we sent emails.
@JMaxB No one does that anymore. Some people still have to pay for text, or have a set number they can use for free. Others would text if you owned an iPhone, but then would think twice just in case it was an Android at the other hand. Sending photos was a mess,...
Again, people do what's more practical and easy: open WhatsApp, it's on everyone's phone, regardless of brand, send whatever you feel like, to a person or a group. That's it.
WhatsApp replaced texting. For everyone. Nowadays when someone says "text me" you know it's going to be on WhatsApp.
@maique Some people in my country still uses feature phones, so for them it’s SMS texting. Most people I know uses iPhones, and if they’re not I also send an SMS, or use Signal, (if they have it and have an Android phone).
@maique I literally don't know a single person who uses WhatsApp. Messages /Text is prevalent and we use Slack at the restaurant that I manage, though most people at work respond quicker via messages/text.
@hawaiiboy Yeah, this seems to vary a lot by country/region. Our circle of backward people communicates by text every single day, with forays into email to send photos and large attachments.
@hawaiiboy Yes, it's something non-US. Everywhere else I've been to, except maybe some places in Asia, it's WhatsApp. Businesses too, you see their number on the ads and they go "xxxxxxxxx phone/WhatsApp". Doctors, Schools, everything.
@maique I can’t help but think that a reliance on a foreign business, for what should be a local service, is going to eventually bite these countries.
@mcg There are a few countries that have had issues with the service, but mostly because it's so ubiquitous that it's the perfect tool to spread fake news, and promote shitty behaviour.
But most people don't think about who owns the service, or what country is it based in. It's a tool, and a pretty good one at that.
We've been using it since before it was acquired by Facebook, every day. Even if I don't especially like it, it makes life easier. We used to deal with huge roaming charges, keeping our phones on while travelling, and paying for every single message that we got and sent, even if we didn't need them. We had to pay for calls, with outrageous prices. All that is gone. Keep your phone in airplane mode, use Wi-Fi, get all the messages, update everyone, make calls and everyone is happy. No one cares who's paying for it, it feels free.
And it works for everyone, regardless of their country, mobile operator or brand of their smartphones. It's practical, easy, and free. That's what people care about.
@jsonbecker I’m putting a big push on making email a more primary form of communication in my personal life, and as I do, I realize how much I’ve missed it. There’s a slowness and intentionality to writing good email that all messaging apps completely miss in their haste and instantaneous nature.
@maique Yep, same thing here. Also re: your other replies, even though in the UK we have a bit of everything from around the world (with the exception of Chinese-based tech especially lately) there is one thing that is both a big difference-maker and really stands out here on Micro.blog: Android.
The amount of ground the non-Apple companies have made just because of that alternative is significant. There are people I know who don’t like using the internet in general but if they did they would do so via Android or Google or Windows, since those are all much easier to access when compared to Apple’s locked services.