How Ray Tomlinson Changed the World

Ray Tomlinson

Ray Tomlinson permanently changed the world of communications when he sent the first email in 1971. Tomlinson, a Rensselar Polytechnic Institute and Massachusetts Institute of technology graduate, was an employee of  BBN Technologies at the time of his infamous invention. However, Tomlinson did not invent the email as part of his regular job; he was merely working on a side project. At the time, scientists were already using electronics to communicate, but they were only able to send messages between multiple users of the same computer or to mailboxes that required the message be printed in order to be visible. Tomlinson sought to find a way to transmit a message from one computer to another. To do this, Tomlinson altered already existing programs to develop the first email software. The term "email" did not come to be until several years later, but Tomlinson was responsible for using the "@" symbol to distinguish the name of the recipient from the location of the email address.

Since its advent, email has had a profound impact on how society operates. Email provides individual people with a means to communicate messages instantly and globally. People can communicate with more people in more locations in less time and for less money. This same idea of instant peer-to-peer messaging is still emphasized today as we develop various message transmitting applications and devices; without email, these technologies may not have ever come to fruition or may have taken longer to be invented. Email had also added variety to our communication abilities. Email enables users to send more than just texts; senders can transmit images, videos, links, documents, and presentations.

Here at HPU, we are required to use our emails daily. Email allows us to communicate with professors and to receive notifications from the university. HPU's email network has provided the university with a means to connect the students with the school. The invention of the email has affected the communications' structures of this university and the communications' structures of the world.

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