[ih] deterioration of email (was Re: clever usc creation)

[Ofer Inbar]

On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 12:51:04PM -0700,
Jack Haverty via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> Over the last decade or two, I've suggested, several times, to
> several ISOC administrations, that ISOC "walk the walk" with email
> by serving as a prominent example of "how to do email right".   That
> of course might require policies to possibly be changed, technical
> flaws to be addressed, educational efforts, and even perhaps
> governments' actions.
> 
> Most Internet users today likely experience things like phishing
> attacks, emails with forged sources, and other such effects that
> make email untrustworthy in their views.   Most of the Internet
> users have no idea how to protect themselves from such attacks.
>  Most regulatory and government authorities seem to have no idea
> what, if anything, they can do about it.

A majority of younger Internet users (at least in the English speaking
world I'm familiar with) - perhaps not an overwhelming majority, but
quite certainly a majority - simply do not use email to communicate.
They use it to verify their address for accounts, they use it to check
for a specific thing that they know is going to be sent to them by
email and that they know they want to see, and most of the rest of the
time, they let their email pile up and they ignore nearly all of it.

To actually stay in touch with friends, family, coworkers, groups
they're part of, etc. - all the things email used to be for - they
use messaging apps.  Discord, Facebook, Slack Instagram, and more
like that.  Or SMS/RCS phone texts.

All of the various problems with email today, including the ones you
listed, are I think dwarfed by one big one that has caused this:
spam.  This includes both scattershot scam-oriented spam, but also
lots of lists that sign you up without asking permission.  You donate
to a political candidate, and some sleazy "grassroots" database starts
selling your address to loads of other campaigns of the same party.
You pay for a meal at a restaurant with your phone, enter the email
address for your receipt, and now not only are you on the email list
for that restaurant, but also the next cafe or ice cream place or
whatever where the payment system recognizes your card and offers
to email your receipt and you didn't notice the small checkbox to
opt out of signing up.  You RSVP to an event on some sleazy site like
eventbrite, and now you're on several mailing lists for similar events.

The majority of email is assumed to be spam or otherwise irrelevant,
by people whose experience of email started after the explosion of
spam that I described above.  They never knew what it was like for
email to be relevant and worth checking, so they don't think of it
as relevant or worth checking.  Knowing this, they also don't think
it's a useful way to communicate with anyone they know.
  -- Cos