We’ve had almost four centuries to get used to the mail system. In 1660, the General Post Office was official established and everyone grew accustomed to sending and receiving messages this way.  When I was in third grade, my teacher taught the entire class how to properly fill out an envelope for the postman.  She always said, “If the envelope isn’t filled out properly the postman will return it to you.”    

Those of us already deeply familiar with email have had a decade or two of experience, making the process of drafting and sending a note and managing addresses. But for millions of elderly or poor Americans, Internet communication can be confounding and nerve wracking.

In my efforts to help newcomers to he Web learn to communicate, I find that if you can communicate the similarities between an email system and your neighborhood postman the light bulb turns on for them.  

The Postman’s primary job function is to distribute and pick up mail.  Our job consists of writing letters, putting them into envelopes, and placing them into a mailbox for the Postman.  After we read the mail we perform two essential functions. We either save the letter/message if it’s important or we put it in the trash.  Once Mary and Jocelyn, two of the people I’m working with in this Citizen Why Project, visualized this picture the inner workings of an email system was no longer difficult for them to comprehend.  Now they understood the following:

The Inbox is their mailbox; it’s where they pick up delivered mail. 

Compose, is their nifty pen and paper, which allows them to write a letter to someone. 

Sent Mail is a carbon copy of the original letter that they sent to someone. 

The Spam folder is where they can store all that junk mail from businesses like, Publishers Clearing House.  

And finally, the Trash Bin is their kitchen garbage.

We laughed at my form of reasoning but it made perfect sense to them.