10 Advantages and Disadvantages of Email | Drawbacks & Benefits of Email

What is Email ?

Email is a electronic mail service where an internet user sends and receives electronic letters (mails). There are several web portals such as Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail which supports the email service. Besides text, messages in email can be also in the form of video, audio and images. 

Where is Emails used ?

 

Today it is one of the most commonly used communication tools in the world. In fact it is known to move forward businesses in a positive approach. It is almost hard to find a workplace today, that doesn't rely on emails for its communication. 

 

But not for everyone emails are beneficial. Similar to two sides of a coin, there are positives as well as negatives in an email service. It changes upon different persons and the type of business. By knowing the pros and cons, the users can analyze and decide whether emails will be effective for them. 

In this article, let's look at the 10 Advantages and Disadvantages of Email | Drawbacks & Benefits of Email. Through this post, you will know the pros and cons of using email service.

 

Let's get started,

 

Advantages of Email

 

1. Cost

 

Apart from the cost of internet connections, email services are entirely free. Compared to most of other traditional method of communication such as postal, fax and telephone. The cost of sending an email is really low. You can send many emails as possible to unlimited people regardless of the document you are going to send.

 

 

2. Speed

 

Emails are extremely fast too. Just in a matter of seconds, emails can be sent and received by the recipients regardless of where they are present in the world. In fact there are no other services in the world that offers speed as it does on email. 

 

 

3. User Friendliness

 

Emails are also easy to use. Even people with basic computer skills will be able to send and receive emails. The sender only needs to mention the recipient, type the subject and message. And simply press the send button. And also emails can be used to view contacts and informations easily.

 

 

4. Accessibility

 

Emails can be used as a storage medium where people will be able to save important files and documents. These informations can be accessed any part of the world anytime regardless of the country they are present in. Whether you are in the workplace, home or overseas you can go through the messages.

 

 

5. Prioritize

 

Messages those are received are always with a subject line. Therefore, you can easily filter and prioritize important emails. All the unwanted emails can be deleted even without opening.

 

 

6. Automation

 

Emails also include an auto-responder facility. Auto-responders in essence means that automated emails with certain messages can be delivered back to the sender, if the recipients are busy. Most of these texts are prewritten and generalized.

 

 

7. Advertisements

 

Emails can also be used as a tool of product marketing. For an example, a company can market their products to a large number of customers just by spending little amount of time. This kind of marketing is considered to be less expensive too.

 

 

8. Attachments

 

Usage of attachments is another feature of an email. Besides text, attachments can be added to the mail. Attachments can be of any form such as Photos, Videos, Music, Document or a PDF file. Through this more value is added to the service.

 

 

9. References

 

Emails always carry the references of messages. Whenever a mail is sent or received, it is always stored on the mail server unless the user deletes them. These kinds of references are more easier compared to an old traditional method of using papers.  

 

 

10. Environment Friendly

 

Emails are completely an electronic service. Thus, they don't require any paper for functioning. A Paperless service means that there is no actual damages caused to the environment.

 

 

Disadvantages of Email

 

1. Internet Access

 

It is compulsory for the sender and the receiver to have an access to internet connection for using the email service. That is not a problem, unless it is an area where there is no service from the internet service provider. It is not possible to use an email service in this area since there is no internet access.

 

 

2. Spamming

 

If you don't use a firewall or an anti-spam software, there can be overwhelming number of spam mails in your inbox. These spam mails can act as a nuisance since you have to delete it time to time. Even some spam filters has not proved effective against them. Email spoofing is one of the popular forms of spamming.

 

 

3. Virus Attacks

 

Email can be one of source of virus. Especially viruses can reach out computers in the form of attachments and cause some serious damages to the system. These viruses are most often scanned by email providers. However it is better for the user to scan manually and be cautious about mails from unknown people.

 

 

4. Information Overheads

 

Some people may not provide proper attention to the emails received due to their busy schedule. If left unread for a long time, this could potentially cause information overheads. Hence, for avoiding this, users has to stay updated by regularly checking the email account.

 

 

5. Timely Response

 

Some emails tends to require timely responses. Which means that these mails must be replied as soon as possible. If left unattended, users can miss important messages.

 

 

6. Direct Interactions

 

Emails lack on the side of direct interaction because it is treated similar to a conversation. It cannot convey a personal touch or emotional feelings to build relationships. In this case, the best will be to use other options such as a direct face-to-face conversation, telephone call or even a letter.

 

 

7. Misunderstandings

 

Emails can also be easily misunderstood, if it is misinterpreted by the sender. This is especially true, if the sender sends the mail in a hurry. Therefore, before sending the mail, the user has to go through and ensure that the messages are well constructed.

 

 

8. Recovery

 

Recovery of an email account is difficult, if the user forgets the username or the password. The only option for this will be either by answering a security question or using a phone number. If the user fails in all of them, it is impossible to recover the email account.

 

 

9. Disruptions

 

Emails does not include any kind of alert system. Therefore, after certain time, inbox can be flooded with emails that can be disruptive to go through one by one. Due to this there are chances to miss important emails.

 

 

10. Data Loss

 

Comparing to a hand written letter, emails are highly vulnerable to data loss. It takes no time to destroy or delete an email. And also once the site goes down, the data on the server can never be retrieved.