Are Fax Machines Going Out of Style?

Fax machines have been a central part of many people's offices for decades. The same technology has been in use since around the 1970s, but it was not until a decade later that fax machines and faxing technology became more common for more businesses. By and large, the fax machine replaced many things that had been done by using the postal service before, or even hand-delivering things to others. Using the mail, you could end up waiting days for a document to get there. If you used an overnight service, the least you'd be waiting was twenty-four hours, and that could cost substantially more than using a regular mail service. If you waited a whole day for that information to get there, that means you couldn't implement the information in those documents until the next day. If you sent a reply, then the other person couldn't react to it until you waited yet another day for them to get the documents.

Of course, there was always the telephone, too,but that's not always the best or most convenient way to share ideas and information, either. It's difficult to communicate things with a lot of facts and figures over the telephone, and some people want a hard copy of the information to refer to if they need to. In the 1980s, fax machines became a more common sight in any office building. To have one, you had to buy the machine as well as a new phone line, but most people thought the convenience of having the machine was well worth the added cost of operating it and occasionally having to have it repaired.

How was this an improvement? If you called someone on the phone to tell them about your ideas or to give them some financial figures, the person would not have their own copy, and probably wouldn't remember the data or take it in as readily. The mail was slower, so even if you photocopied all your work and mailed it out to someone, they couldn't get it right away. Fax machines solved these problems by getting the documents there almost immediately, within a space of minutes, not days. The other person would have an exact copy of the document you were holding in your hand, and they could read and react to whatever was contained in the file right away. They could telephone or send you a fax back right away, so fax machines helped people to do their work more quickly than before.

Like most other advances in business technology, faxing has changed since it first came into use. Now it is less costly and it can be done without ever needing to own a fax machine or pay that extra additional phone bill. Online faxing has become more common, and it can cost only a fraction of what it would cost you to own and run a fax machine. All you need is a faxing account and your computer.