E-Mail: Computers Breed A Letter-Writing Renaissance All Over The Planet, E-Mail Is Changing The Way We Communicate Because It’s Cheap, Easy And Immediate

Sue Rolando sometimes taps out messages to her daughter in Mexico two or three times a day. Ellen Cote heard from her husband, via computer, when he went to Australia.

When the big Los Angeles quake struck last year, Diana Bolch was able to contact her uncle, who lived 15 miles from the epicenter, without calling him. Robert Jenson has made new friends as far away as New York and Great Britain, without buying a postage stamp.

These Inland Northwest residents are joining millions of other people - around the country and around the world - who are using the newest form of personal communication: electronic mail.

E-mail, as it is universally known, is nothing more than electronic messages exchanged between two or more computers. Commonly used in offices, it is rapidly spreading to homes as personal computers, on-line services and Internet access become more common.

“We process about 4 million pieces of e-mail a day. The majority of people who are on-line are sending e-mail … that’s the primary reason they’re on-line or connected to Internet,” says Judy Tashbook, public relations manager of America Online. The company is the largest U.S. on-line service, providing news, information, e-mail capabilities and Internet access to 3.5 million members.

“We’ve seen a real renaissance in the art of letter writing,” says Tashbook. “It’s supplanting phone calls. It’s cheaper than sending a first-class letter. It’s faster. You can do it from the office or from home. It’s not even just text-based anymore. You can attach pictures. You could send a Christmas photo all over the world.”

Ellen Cote, a Spokane resident, ran across her 10th-grade boyfriend on-line and also rediscovered her closest high school girlfriend.

Ruth Roach of Spokane uses e-mail to talk with sons in Los Angeles and Ontario.

“As a gray-haired grandmother who used to sit huddled in front of a wooden stand-up radio listening to ‘Captain Midnight’ serials, this is the stuff of science fiction!” she says.

Dave Graham, a Liberty Lake resident, discovered an on-line mailing list of people with post-polio syndrome.

“After communicating for the last six months, I have become aware that there are others out there who are dealing with my very same issues, and I have benefited from their help and experience,” Graham says.

“Best of all, I have some great new friends all over the world, and we communicate daily.”

Many people use e-mail for information, not just socializing.

John Moore, a Spokane police officer, was off work for two months with an injury.

He communicated with officers from all over the world who had useful information on how they recovered from similar injuries.

Lanny Ream, who publishes a mineral collectors newsletter in Coeur d’Alene, was writing a letter to answer a question “when it dawned on me that I knew someone on-line who would have a better answer than I, so I sent him a message. When I logged on this morning, the answer was there. Wonderful.”

Gary Ewer bought a home computer in January and was on-line in less than a week.

“IMHO (in my humble opinion - how’s that for e-lingo?), e-mail is the greatest thing since sliced bread,” he says.

“I can quickly and conveniently communicate with a friend at the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, N.Y., more easily than I can with the Spokane Public Library (which I can’t, cuz I’m a second-rate, county-sort of resident). London? No problem. Australia? Argentina? Like next door.”

Robyn Christenson of Athol, Idaho, says she exchanged e-mail with actor Christian Slater after meeting him on-line and inadvertently “trashing” him.

“I wrote and apologized and explained the reasons I had for not liking him - my son imitates him and the girls go crazy. …

“He was quite understanding, and we’ve e-mailed back and forth since then.”

When the Southern California quake hit in January 1994, leaving millions of people wondering about the safety of friends and relatives, Christensen went on-line through the Prodigy service and found a listing of subscribers who lived in Claremont, Calif.

Through her e-mail request, a Claremont man volunteered to check on her 103-year-old grandmother, who lived in a nursing home there.

“I gave him the information, he showed up with flowers for her and had an interesting chat with her,” Christensen says.

“The man continued to visit her at the nursing home monthly, until she passed on this past February.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo Staff illustration by Charles Waltmire

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