Page 121 - Viva ICSE Computer Studies 6 : E-book

• Using Emoticons: Use emoticons while communicating. These are small icons showing
diff erent emotions. By using emoticons, you can convey your emotions clearly to the
recipient.
• Participating in Online Discussions: Do not abuse others while participating in a
discussion forum or message boards. Before posting any question, do some research on
the topic. Do not ask inappropriate questions.
• Securing Personal Information: Keep personal information private and do not share
with anyone. Ensure that your personal information and images are only visible to your
contacts, and are not displayed publically. Adjust the privacy settings of your social
networking account to stay safe online as your information can be misused. Keep your
e-mail address as private as possible. Spammers will send you lots of unsolicited e-mails
if they get hold of it.
• Sending and Receiving E-mails: Before sending an e-mail, check and recheck the address.
Remember, even if it is just one character out, it will not be received. Clicking the Reply
box in an e-mail and then writing your message will ensure that you have the correct
address. Back up or print important e-mails. Regularly clear out your e-mail inbox and
sent box. Do not SHOUT in e-mails by typing in upper case letters. Never fi re off an e-mail
message in anger. Pause, refl ect and then delete the message. Avoid using off ensive,
abusive or threatening language.

• Obeying Copyright Laws: Always ensure to cite the Internet source from where the
information is taken. As per the Copyright laws, the user cannot copy and use others’
content claiming it as his/her own content.
Electronic Mail (E-mail) and Its Features

Electronic mail or e-mail is a method of sending
or receiving messages using a computer that
has an Internet connection. E-mail is very fast,
usually taking only a few seconds to reach its
destination. It is much useful when you need to
send a message to many people across cities and
countries. In addition to the message, you can
attach digital fi les including documents, video
clips, music and photos to an e-mail. E-mail is
sent and received through a mail server. The mail server acts like an electronic ‘post offi ce’.
Some of the common mail servers are Gmail, Yahoo and Rediff mail. These servers provide us
an address in order to be able to send and receive messages.

Advantages of an E-mail

An e-mail off ers the following benefi ts to the user.
• Once you are online, there is no further expense you need to incur to send your mails.
Nothing is charged for sending and receiving e-mails even though the message is sent
across the world.

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