Let’s admit it. Mail (or snail mail as the urban dictionary would say) has certainly taken a backseat and e-mail is the preferred mode of communication today. Thus said, how do we like people to address us? Say, singletomingle@gmail.com , or the oft-quoted example, hotmale@hotmail.com. While your name is widely known all over, you are the bloke with qualities made obvious in your email address when the sender writes to you. So, what are the ‘amusing’ email addresses in aid of?
Studofblr@yahoo.com. Yes, it takes a few moments to decipher it before we realize that we are addressing the stud of Bangalore! Quite likely that the owner of the address is indeed so, but forever? Wouldn’t it be amusing to visualize a very successful advocate with an email identity as legaleagle?. Or a psychiatrist with shrink2011, and a college student with slimshadydude?
There is indeed a fun element in email addresses that sound cool, but it’s a fact that they end up confusing people, especially when distributed en masse. First off, though they know it is you they are writing to, there’s every chance that they would go back to the address, just to make sure. Secondly, you have the problem of identity. If it is Kumar, a kumar in the email address would be easier to relate to, than a kumisindian or a 666_beast. If the intention is to publish our affiliations, there are scores of social media that would serve just the purpose. Finally, we don’t want to paint a picture of ourselves contrary to how we appear.
It is indeed a smarter option to just have our name as it is, for our email address. With over a billion users the world over, names are bound to be in use already, but we could certainly do with permutations and combinations. Say, a Jack could have his email identity as Jack1 or Jack_321, and still be the same guy everyone knows! Don’t these plain names give a sense of purpose in all communication?
2 comments:
Its an interesting article. However i don't completely agree that an email address should correspond to the name of the recepient. There is difference between an email and mail. E-mail being an electronic mail should have an accurate domain address to reach the recepient as that particular a/c is operated by a single person irrespective of what his name reads. Mentioning Jack1, Jack2 or Jack3 can also be confusing unless his surname is mentioned. But in case of a mail, the name of the recepient is important else the mail may be undelivered or may reach a wrong person in case the addressee doesn't reside there.
People would have started having 'amusing' email addresses when they are in college (or atleast at a young age). Thats when they typically use the nicknames given by friends or their own images of themselves as their email addresses. Example, I had a friend whose name was Manjunath and who moved around with his email address "kolimanja@yahoo.com" for a good few months in his first job. But, I guess they start to realize that these email addresses do seem weird and so move to something more representative of their name.
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