My first computer was a machine called a Tandy 1000. I purchased it at a store called The Radio Shack. By today’s standards it was a Stone Age implement.

Email, as a “thing”, came alone as a function of internet portals such as Netscape or America Online (AOL) where users were charged for the time they were “online”.

It took some time for me to acclimate to the new medium. I would print out emails from friends and put them in a correspondence file in a real file cabinet.

Today it’s difficult to imagine communication without email being a major component. As broadband capacity grew, email and for that matter browsing the internet became more universal and cheap. In the past thirty years electronic communication has literally come from the Stone Age to the Space Age. Today’s leading edge digital device will soon become an historical footnote in the story of technology.

It took a while but I finally adjusted. I no longer file my emails in an actual filing cabinet.