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.
I don’t think usage will change to suit your pendantry any time soon.
It’s natural for language to evolve from previous usage, and for old terms to remain entrenched. (Even a kid who has never seen a dial phone knows what it means to ‘dial a phone number’.)
Yes! You can find a brushes (paint-can style and stylus), eye-droppers, dodge-and-burn tools, rubber stamp (for “cloning”), cloth patch (for covering a space with a repeating or computer-generated pattern), ruler, “paste board”, clipboard, hand-held camera (for “taking a photo”), hand-cranked movie camera (for “shooting a video”)…
Sooo many symbols representing analog, material devices for electronic files and actions.
In my first job, I had my own secretary, which sounds pretty swell these days. I also kept an IBM typewriter in my office, and did most of my writing there, except for formal letters. My secretary had a brand new “word processor” (this was before PCs were a thing, much less Apple), with floppy disks as big as a vinyl record. Though we became friends later, at first she sneered at me as a pipsqueak kid who she expected would be adding to her workload. So while I had encountered carbon paper at home and in my father’s office where I did summer work, I just missed the era of carbon paper in my full-time work career. Never used it after that.
Despite lightweight paper and thin carbon sheets, when he would have to make more than three copies he sometimes had to put considerable effort into trying to keep that bottom copy legible- because he hated - on principle, if nothing else - typing or writing out the same thing twice.
It was Michael Nesmith's mom.
LOL! Priceless!
At the large defense contractor I used to work at a corporation wide email went out and someone replied to “all.” Then people started replying, questioning why they were included, others were replying saying to NOT reply, which led to even more replies! Then, some engineering nerds plotted the number of replies with a graph that they were all standing around giggling at while the numbers soared. It was epically funny.
I used to cherish those rare business e-mails in which I was CC’ed.
It meant that I didn’t have to do anything/opine right away.
I used carbon paper in the 70’s.
This was complicated by the need to change the ball every now and then when the professor used specialized symbols in his papers.
-PJ
“An Anachronism that has Survived 150 years”
Must we change things every time the technology changes?
Fine, let’s call it mimeograph. No? How about Xerox?
Ok, I'll give him some points for that.
It was valid until mid 80s.
I learned on a manual in high school. My dad bought me an electric Smith Corona portable for college (he was great for making me take typing in high school). I was then able to use the IBM Selectric with the changeable balls at work (before I figured out I could hire the ladies in the typing pool for some after hours work). Those Selectrics were great, weren’t they? A brilliant stop-over for a couple of decades between electric typewriters and word processors.
One answer to the question in the title:
To create an audit trail by including others.
But my correspondence recipients were perplexed when they saw “bcc” at the bottom of my letters. “What’s this ‘bcc’?” they would ask.
I was still using a manual typewriter in the 1980s and made many carbon copies and used "cc" but I don't recall being aware of "bcc" until computers came out.
“Or put something in the Frigidaire.”
I still say put something in the ice box.
We have bank checks with copies, possibly carbon copies. It’s very much optional as we can go to the bank website and see scanned copies of our checks.
-PJ
When I was young and ‘secretary-ing’, I thought Word Perfect was one of the greatest inventions ever. (I still think it is the best word processing program ever developed.)
Hey - we still ‘Typist’, which originally referred to a typesetter.
“I don’t recall being aware of “bcc” until computers came out.”
You are the first person to *almost* get my sly humor there (maybe it was too sly and too obscure(. There’s absolutely no point to putting a bcc on a PAPER letter or a carbon copy of the letter. Think about it.
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