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

[Dan York]

Jack,

On Jul 29, 2026, at 2:08 PM, Jack Haverty via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

But for many, perhaps most, people "email" now means whatever they now use to communicate with their friends.

My 17yo daughter would disagree with you on the use of the term. “Email” is what old people use, and she only looks at her email when she is forced to in order to get a confirmation message or something. (Or when her father *texts* her to tell her that I’ve sent her something in email! 🤦‍♂️)  Even the term “email” (as a noun or a verb) is dropping out of the vocabulary of her and her high school friends. They “message” someone instead… or “text” or “send a snap” (if Snapchat).

Such interoperability may exist but if so it's not easy to find.  In contrast, in the early days of email ~1980s there were multiple systems but they were often somehow interconnected.

Yes, that interoperability was so powerful!

Like email, many of the other early Internet communications mechanisms, such as MBone, IRC, etc., have similarly fragmented into multiple walled gardens that are not interoperable but compete in hope of being the winner.

I don’t know that the early mechanisms are competing as much as fading away. I think as more and more people came online, people wanted better user experiences that “just worked”. I still remember when Skype came along and it was so incredibly simple and easy to use. Almost immediately people started switching from other VoIP and messaging software that was harder to use. You could find someone easily… and connecting was simple and “just worked”.

Ditto with messaging… why bother with different IRC clients and waiting for connections when you could just use Slack and it “just worked”! (Plus it had persistent messages, a big win.)

I think the power of a good user experience / UX is what has pulled people inside of so many walled gardens!

My 2 cents,
Dan