Electronic envelopes

I have finally decided to stop trying to hold on to the past like a miserable old git and instead embrace the modern technology of electronic mail. No, not just email, but e-_MAIL_, as in mail that would have normally been delivered to your physical mailbox. Pretty soon all companies will be charging you money for the privilege of receiving a paper copy of their invoices, so there’s hardly an alternative anymore. That’s why I accepted the promo campaign from S-Pankki and signed up for NetPosti by Itella.

So this is how it goes: the e-_MAIL_ doesn’t actually arrive in your email inbox, but rather you get an email notification that you’ve got e-_MAIL_. It’s a bit like if Hotmail would send me a note to my Gmail every time I get spam to my secondary address. Actually, it’s dangerously close to a Yo dawg meme. “…we heard you like email so we put an email to your email so you can email while you email!”

Anyway, I didn’t take long for me to realize that I’m way too lazy to open the e-_MAIL_s. Unlike a traditional web service where you could just reuse your familiar username/password combination, this one requires me to reach for my disposable online banking identification numbers. That’s great as far as security goes, but it means I will not open the digital envelopes unless I have some reason to visit my online bank.

To me it seems like the future of messaging can therefore be divided into these three clear categories:

• Only “official” and important mail will be processed through services like NetPosti
• All personal communication with your friends will be through chats in Facebook or your favorite IM app
• Email as we know it will be used purely for commercial spam and resetting various website user account passwords