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You know what snail mail is, right? That's the way we usually send a letter--paper, pen, envelope, stamp. Why is it called snail mail? Because it is s-o-o-o-o-o-o s-l-o-w!! If you send a snail mail to a friend in England, you have to write a letter, put it in an envelope, put your address and your friend's address on the front, and stick a stamp on it. Then you find the closest mail box and throw your letter in and go home to wait. You can wait for days or weeks before your friend gets your letter, reads it, and writes back to you.
Say "C-Ya snail mail, hello to email!" The fastest way to send a letter is through the Internet. With electronic mail (or email for short), your modem can send messages around the Internet in a very few seconds.
How email is sent and received
Email is one of the easiest Internet tools to use. To send a message you start your email program, fill in the correct email address and type your message. Click the Send button and your message is on its way!
To check for new messages, look for an option in your email program such as Check Mail (or you might even have an icon [picture] that shows you that you have new mail). When you click on your new mail button, you tell your email software on your computer to talk to your Internet server computer to see if there are any messages for you. If there are, the messages will be downloaded into your Email box on your computer and stay there until you read them. After you have read your message, you can print it, save it to a floppy disk or hard drive, forward the message to someone else, or just delete it.
Did you know...
Email is the most frequently used application of the Internet. Many people who have access to the Internet at school, home, and work, use the Internet for no other purpose than to send and receive email.
According to International Data Corporation (IDC), on an average day in the year 2000, 5.1 billion emails are sent in the US and 8.2 billion worldwide. By 2005, 11.5 billion emails will be sent each day on average in the US and 26.1 billion worldwide.
Who Are You?
In real life, there could be several people in the world who have the same name as you. But on the Net, no two users can have the same name. Each user is known by an email address. Your email address is a lot like a phone number--just as there's a different number for every telephone, there's a different email address for every person on the Internet.
When you first look at an email address it looks like alphabet soup. It has letters, numbers, periods, and symbols that shouldn't make sense, right? Well, believe it or not, they do. In a telephone number you have an area code and phone number which tell you where the telephone is located. In an email address it tells you who the user is and where the message is coming from. But be careful!! Some people enjoy "spamming" or using your email address to pull a Net prank on someone else! You wouldn't give your phone number to a stranger you meet on the street, would you? So be careful with your email address when dealing with strangers on the Net!
Parts of an Email Address
Every time you see an Internet address--online, magazines, television/radio ads, etc., there will be a string of letters, numbers, symbols, and sometimes words. Type every character into your computer exactly as you see it. Keep the characters all on one line, even if the address runs over two lines on the page. Don't leave any spaces--Internet addresses never contain spaces.
Take a look at the email address below. When you read it aloud, the address is pronounced: "newbie at cyberspace dot hotcity dot e-d-u." Sounds kind of strange doesn't it? It does sound a lot like a regular address with the periods or "dots" separating the different elements. Let's take a look at what this address means...just so you know what you are seeing and saying.
| newbie | @ | cyberspace. | hotcity. | edu |
| At the beginning of an address is the user ID, the identity of the person sending or receiving the message. It can be a name written in letters, numbers or a combination of both. In this case, the person is identified as "newbie". | The "at" symbol is one of the most important symbols in an email address. It separates the user ID to the left of it from the location to the right of it. |
This tells you where the user is. It could be the name of a school, office, club, or organization. In this case, newbie is located at "cyberspace." |
In the majority of cases, this part of the email address is the geographic location, called the subdomain. Cyberspace is located in a place called "hotcity." |
This is the user's domain. It tells you what kind of user this is. In this case, "edu" means that cyberspace is an educational institution. |
The Domain Name
Every email address is organized with information about the user and the location of the computer in the same place. This is called the domain name system and it makes it a lot easier to look for people on the Net--and to remember their addresses!
If you know a user's name, then you're off to a good start because that is what is to the left of the @ (at) symbol in the address. To the right of the @ (at) symbol is where you find the computer's location (or its domain). The domain tells you what kind of user is there--an individual, a school, a business, or a government. So the last group of letters on the right-hand side make looking for someone easier by pinpointing what and where the user is. Here is a list of some possible choices:
| com | commercial (usually businesses) |
| edu | education (schools, universities, etc.) |
| org | other organizations |
| net | networks (like service providers) |
| mil | military (armed forces such as the army or navy) |
| gov | governmental organizations (like the White House) |
| on.ca | Ontario, Canada (two-letter abbreviations of province or country names--for example, us for the United States, au for Australia--are often used in the domain) |
Anatomy of Email
You can send email from your computer to anyone who has an email address any place in the world. Email is faster than regular mail--it only takes a few seconds! And electronic letters rarely get lost.
Once you've seen one piece of email you've seen them all! All email looks exactly the same, because they all follow the same format that all computers on the Net can understand. Here are the basic parts of an email message:
Now that you know the parts of an email message, here's what happens when your click on the "Send" button:
Netiquette and Flames
When you talk to a person either face-to-face or on the phone, it is usually easy to tell when they are joking or when they're not. But when you are on the Net and communicate by messages on a computer screen, it is not so easy. You might send email to people you have never met--so they may not understand how you express yourself or your sense of humor. Getting along with others on the Net requires some rules of netiquette. If you don't follow them, you might get flamed--receive a ton of negative responses to your inappropriate behavior--and then it could get difficult to cool things down!
Say it With a "Smiley" :-)
If you are trying to be funny on the Net or just want to have some fun, try an emoticon. Emoticons show your feelings on faces made up of symbols and letters from your keyboard. Here are a few to help say it with a smiley.
| :-) | Smiley | %-) | Bug-eyed |
| :-o | Wow! | 8-) | I wear glasses |
| :-c | Totally unbelievable! | :-[) | Moustache |
| :-I | Hmmm... | ;-( | Crying |
| '-) | Wink | :-@ | Screaming |
| :^D | Great idea! | I-I | Sleeping |
| :-* | Ooops! | I-0 | Yawning |
| :-( | Frown | :-S | I'm totally confused! |
| :-, | Smirk | :-/ | Skeptical |
| :-V | Shout | 3-) | My pet |
| :-r | Tongue hangin' out | C:# | Football player |
| :-& | Tongue tied | :-() | Ouch! |
| :-T | Keeping a straight face | {:-) | Wearing stereo headphones |
| :-D | Big smile | <:-D | It's my birthday! |
| :-# | My lips are sealed! | ~~:-( | Just got flamed! |
| I-{ | Good grief! | :) | Ha-ha! |
| :-} | Yum-yum! | I-) | Hee-hee! |
| 8-o | No way! | I-D | Ho-ho! |
| (-: | I'm left handed! | :-> | Hey-hey! |
Acronyms FYI--For Your Information
On the Net, you may see abbreviations of common expressions or sayings. People use these just for fun or to save time. Here's a list of some popular Net acronyms. So next time someone says BFN, you know to say CYA!
| BBL | Be back later | FWIW | For what it's worth |
| BFN | Bye for now | FYI | For your information |
| BRB | Be right back | IAE | In any event |
| BTW | By the way | IMHO | In my humble opinion |
| IMO | In my opinion | IOW | In other words |
| ITC | It's the coolest! | JFYI | Just for your information |
| LMHO | Laughing my head off | LOL | Laughing out loud |
| NBD | No bid deal | NOYB | None of your business |
| OIC | Oh, I see... | OTL | Out to lunch |
| OTOH | On the other hand | PMFJI | Pardon me for jumping in |
| ROFL | Rolling on the floor laughing | RS | Real soon |
| TIA | Thanks in advance | TIC | Tongue in cheek |
| TTFN | Ta-ta for now | TTYL | Talk to you later |
| TWF | That was fun | YMBJ | You must be joking! |
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This site was created by
Laura Parcell for the primary purpose of teaching and demonstrating computer skills.Any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this page or this web site should be forwarded to