For the longest time, I was against using an online email client like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, or Gmail. I remember thinking that I couldn’t afford to have my valuable emails sitting on some other computer (i.e., their server). I needed to have emails stored locally so I could access them when I didn’t have a connection to the internet.

But that all changed over a number of years as I, and many others I’m sure, came to embrace the “network is the computer” mentality. Eventually, it was a rare occurrence that you couldn’t find an easy wi-fi connection. You might have to pay T-Mobile at Starbucks or you’d have to wait just a little bit until you found a place. Now, its just ridiculous to think of a hotel without a connection. Besides, many individuals and companies don’t really take wi-fi security that seriously so open connections can be found just about anywhere. We were recently in a hotel in San Diego which offered $10/day internet access but I was able to find three other wi-fi connections to the internet from my room. Our local airport has had free wi-fi for years.

And as this mentality in local versus network computer was taking hold, a new equation was developing. Part of the old way of thinking was that checking one’s email meant sitting down at one particular computer. But now, I have multiple computers. There’s the household computer, my laptop, and my work computer. So, the new equation is “checking email = having a connection”. A connection, not any particular computer. You’re probably thinking, “No Duh, you’re just now realizing this.” But think about it for a while. Think about it in terms of how we as a society are tied to the internet. Just as revolutionary was the advent of the internet is the way we use the internet. And now that the connection is virtually everwhere, so is email.

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