Definition of electronic mail

The term "electronic mail" (or email) can be traced back to the 1960s when computer technology was rapidly advancing. At that time, computers were primarily used for scientific and military purposes, and the ability to transmit messages electronically within a computer network became a crucial component. Ray Tomlinson, a computer scientist at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) Technologies, is widely credited with inventing email as we know it today. In 1971, Tomlinson developed the first email system for ARPANET (the precursor to the modern-day internet) in which users could send messages to each other via text terminals connected to computers. To differentiate this new form of communication from traditional postal mail, Tomlinson coined the term "electronic mail" (or "email"), which stuck and eventually became a widely used term for messaging in computer networks. By 1978, email was an established feature in the Unix operating system, and in the 1980s, commercial email systems began to arise, marking the start of the era of private email service providers. Today, email is an integral part of modern communication, facilitating rapid and convenient messaging between people all over the world.