|  | Mental Health | Anxiety Disorders

The Disadvantages of Email

Email offers many benefits, including convenience and minimal cost. However, it does have some disadvantages when compared with communication by telephone, postal mail or secure website forms. Major disadvantages of email include spam, unreliability, insecurity and sender/recipient incompatibility. Some of these problems stem from the technology used by email, others from the ability to send massive quantities of messages for free.

  1. Spam Ads

    • One of the major disadvantages to email is that it's easy for businesses to send out unsolicited spam advertisements in bulk at little or no cost. This annoys users, raises the email processing costs of internet service providers and spreads deceptive, often offensive material.

    Unreliability

    • Although email communication works well most of the time, email servers and internet service providers generally experience more service outages than telephone companies. It's also easy to enter an incorrect email address and send a message to the wrong recipient or to no one at all. Email generally doesn't provide an immediate response like telephone calls or instant messages do. Recipients might be more likely to lose or overlook electronic messages than printed letters or recordings left on answering machines.

    Insecurity

    • Another of the major disadvantages of email is the lack of security. Email is too insecure for sending credit card numbers, according to McAfee. A third party may intercept sensitive information and use it to steal the sender's identity or conduct unauthorized purchases. Criminals can also hack into email accounts and read private messages or impersonate the account's legitimate user. It's safer to transmit things such as credit card and Social Security numbers through a secure website form or a corded telephone. Using encryption can improve the security of email messages.

    Incompatibility

    • Further disadvantages relate to incompatibility between senders and recipients' computer software. These problems can render email difficult or impossible to read. A company may send formatted email messages to an individual using a text-only application or a program which cannot process that level of formatting. People sometimes send document and spreadsheet attachments that require software the recipient doesn't own. Excessively large attachments pose difficulties for users with computers that have low-speed Internet connections or small hard drives.

Anxiety Disorders - Related Articles