The time for paid email ids has come

The time for paid email ids has come

LOOKING AT the way people take email services these days, I think it is a good idea to impose a small fee on all the email ID holders. Such a move will create ripples in the net operated software world of today. This is more so when it comes to the individuals having multiple email IDs. In this virtual digital place, or cyberspace, everyone comes to have their own electronic presence and the same is being uploaded and downloaded innumerable times in one’s lifetime and the process is endless.

Unfortunately, this virtual communication network is being widely misused more by email users than by anyone. Net, as a free space, is free for all. Anyone can get in and out of it without an email ID. Many email ID holders use their address just to keep themselves connected with the rest of the world. But the number of people, who exploit this communication platform for asocial purposes, is increasing by the day and email platforms are becoming breeding grounds for all sorts of crimes, threats and challenges.

Of course, there is a system in place to track and locate the ID holders and their credentials, but the time and effort involved in this could be saved if we could make this service a paid one. Or there could be a separate digital platform for all those, who are ready to pay a subscription so that they will be viewed by the service providers as promoters and they could be given special services. The one, that could be called space-for-all Netscape, can be a platform with minimum facilities.

These two sets of net users will utilise their individual spaces according to their needs. When a free user finds that a paid subscription is going to give him a little extra edge on services, more and more people will subscribe to it. The service providers, on their part, can earmark a share of the subscription money for development activities in their operational areas.

Wiser use of the net will make it a much more freer space without junks and those unwanted data loads that convert our inboxes into trash cans and dustbins. Managing unwanted mail takes a lot of time and the service providers do not seem to be giving any serious privacy policy to their address holders. Emails get leaked to unwanted people, who use it to send in mails of all sorts. Further, managing the stuff is a kind of forced labour. So, it is high time that we change our attitude towards emailing, and a small fee for getting a strictly personalised email ID would look attractive to many discerning netizens.