Email culture

I just got a forwarded email from my mum which used a gawdy purple size 18 text to say this, linking to some youtube video:

Human ingenuity knows no limits. Make sure speakers are on. Sit back and take it all in. Enjoy!

I want to ask mum whats up with the awful colourful text - honestly, why does someone start thumbing through text colours looking for something shouty and obnoxious? Why don't they just use plaintext?

...

But why should anyone use plaintext? Why do I prefer it? I'm sure I could invent some reasons, but its not really better. In truth, I prefer plaintext because thats just how we talk. Its cultural.

10 years ago, rich text in email was considered rude. You excluded mutt and pine users. So technical mailing lists stayed in plaintext, and all important discussions happened in 80 character terminals. I don't know if anyone I care about still uses text-based email clients. It doesn't really matter at this point. Now unnecessary styling in email feels like a 'foreign tribe' signal. When I see it, I think that this person probably doesn't have experience in mailing lists. And so I intuitively think my mum shouldn't use it because people will think less of her.

And thats totally wacky and wrong. My mum and her friends aren't in our internet tribes. They don't have to be, and even though our people invented email, we don't get decide how it gets used. The fact that my mum's social circle can invent their own social conventions is a great sign for email as a product. And anyway, its not like any of them uses mutt.

As always, culture moves on.