I cut letters out of random magazines and paste them together to write letters.
Ensures anonymity!
Regards,
Posted on 01/31/2025 8:23:16 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The evolution of technology is unrelentingly swift. Generations have witnessed state-of-the-art inventions become obsolete in the blink of an eye. The fax machine, the pager, and the landline, all once revolutionary, have earned their place in the annals of history. Yet email — born in 1971 when engineer Ray Tomlinson sent the very first “ping” — has remarkably endured. This persistent form of communication continues to redefine itself for the digital age, but one enigmatic email feature hasn’t changed for over 50 years: the “cc.”
The “cc” field is a familiar sight perched within the recipient line of an email. The purpose is to send a copy of the message to an additional recipient who might need the information, but isn’t integral to the action of the message. Its modern definition traces back to its original usage in the late 19th century, when a duplicate was called a “carbon copy.”
Around the 1870s, long before photocopiers, documents were painstakingly duplicated by hand using carbon paper between two sheets of plain paper. Something written or typed on the top page would be transferred to the bottom piece of paper through the pressure on the carbon (essentially ink). The exact replica was called a “carbon copy.” By the 1920s, the term “carbon copy” had shifted to figuratively describe something that was a near-identical replica, such as “Mark was a carbon copy of his father.” This usage made its way into corporate America in the 1930s, when it was used in business as shorthand to ensure that multiple parties received the same information.
When email emerged in the 1970s, “cc” was quickly adapted, as the jargon was already familiar in professional circles. The concept of the “bcc” (blind carbon copy) soon followed, allowing a sender to conceal recipients entered in the “bcc” field. In the 1980s, the use of “cc” became so prevalent that it evolved into a verb, as in, “I cc’d Amy on that message.”
Even as digital technology seems to be on the cusp of the next big thing,”cc” is here to stay. The anachronism has survived 150 years, evolving from an industrial-era hand-copying tool into an indispensable feature of email etiquette, cementing its place in communication with one simple click.
+1
In the dark ages, when you had to use carbon paper in order to have copies of an original document, and there were no such things as copy machines, you always included CC at the bottom of the document, with the names of the individuals getting a carbon copy.
I'm that old too, and did the same thing. That's what we were taught in our typing classes. Back then CC stood for carbon copy.
White-out didn't exist until 1966. I was already out of high school. We had to use correction tape, or a typewriter eraser, to make corrections on originals and carbon copies. And if you rubbed too hard with the rough eraser, you put a hole in the paper.
I think every school kid sniffed the mimeographed papers the teacher handed out.
Then there was stencil paper you typed on to be used on stencil machines. The stencil set consisted of two sheets. The back sheet was similar to the consistency of a manilla file folder. The front sheet was transparent and thin plastic so the typewriter keys could cut through to make impressions onto. You then separated the front sheet, set it in a stencil machine, and were able to get better copies and more of them. Mimeo ink had a habit of blurring when printed on paper.
It was probably “only” 20 years ago that I kept carbon paper with me on field jobs. One client would want a copy of my field sketch maps right away. Luckily I had some stashed - I don’t think I could find it in the stores anymore. I still might have some. Somewhere!
“They’ve gotten very fast at ‘hunting and pecking’; but it’s not TYPING.
(On the other hand, I will never master the ‘thumb’ thing on the cell phone...)”
Yep, do they even teach touch typing any more? I’m no good at the “thumb thing” either. I hate not having any tactile feedback on phones and tablets. That’s why I use my MacBook Pro as much as possible! Good old key “click” feel. And I’m touch typing right now! My fingers aren’t as nimble as they were when I was typing reports every day for a living, but still not bad.
Now you can sketch something out, take a picture, and send it to everybody in a heartbeat. No more “carbon paper blue thumb.”
I don’t think it’s offered anymore; and it seems that what we learned in school could very well be taught by a computer program, now.
It might be hard for some to adapt to the system, though: they’ve been typing the ‘wrong’ way practically since birth.
I cut letters out of random magazines and paste them together to write letters.
Ensures anonymity!
Regards,
😊
*Olympia
I won’t die over that either.
I still have some old Zipatone around somewhere. Anyone remember that stuff?
“Or put something in the Frigidaire.”
I remember when I was a kid, people my grandparents’ age still calling it the “icebox”.
Many of us? Most of us.
I bet you’ve never heard of a conspiracy theorist referred to as “wearing an aluminum foil hat.”
No, I haven’t; but I hear a lot of people referring to aluminum foil itself.
-PJ
Yes, aluminum foil generally, but for some reason “tinfoil hat” is still the preferred term.
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