Guide to the Internet: Electronic mail

Electronic mail (email) has many advantages over other forms of communication: it is easy to use, free of charge, fast, and delivers information in a digital format. As a text only medium, email is usually less formal in style than conventional correspondence and may contain acronyms and other features, such as smileys, that are peculiar to the Internet. Email client programs that run on your own microcomputer render email powerful and easy to use. With suitable encoding methods, email can be used to send any kind of computer file, including pictures, sounds, programs, and movies. Numerous biomedical electronic mailing lists and other Internet services are accessible by email. Electronic mail, or email, is the transmission of text based messages between networked computers. Email was one of the earliest and most basic resources on the Internet and in many ways it still acts as the lowest common denominator for computer communications. Many computers that cannot access other Internet services can still exchange email with machines on the Internet. Several studies have stressed the beneficial effects of communication by email in medical, nursing, and other settings.1 2 3 4 5 Indeed, email has many advantages over other methods of communication: