I think it's pretty obvious and probably also empirically provable that email can be considered relatively primitive compared to newer forms of communication.

I think it's pretty obvious and probably also empirically provable that email can be considered relatively primitive compared to newer forms of communication. Care to elaborate? What modern form of communication allows you to: -Send a message using a basic plain text format -Send a message using an advanced layout (while also offering a method for people who just want a plain text message to see that version) -Attach a document, drawing or file to your message -Send a message to one or several recipients simultaneously at your choosing -Participate in this communications infrastructure with your own servers (I think this last one is particularly significant). I don't think that people are "intimidated" by some of the new technologies, they just fail to see the benefit or improvement. You could also say that the majority of these things are not really new "technologies", but moreso new presentation layers over basically "primitive" technologies.