As argued earlier, email helped solve a practical problem generated by the growing size of offices: the need for efficient asynchronous communication—that is, a fast way to send messages back and forth without requiring the sender and receiver to be communicating at the same time. Instead of having to play phone tag with a colleague from the other side of your office building, you can replace this real-time conversation with a short message, delivered when convenient for you, and then read when convenient for the recipient.
