I like email as a medium of communicating with friends (and strangers on the internet). That is because, it has two desirable properties:-

1. Email encourages long form text. Text message is a good medium for fast conversation, but in short form, you can rarely convey a full chunk of thought. So, emails are good for that.
2. Email encourages a more thoughtful reply rather than instant reply, which for me is a very important thing. As a friend used to say:-

Late replies over dry replies anyday.

In a sense, I use emails as a substitute of letters. Earlier, I used to think it was nostalgia, but I realized it actually has a functional value.

The problem is, I am an outlier in using emails in this way. So when people think of emails, all they recall is their inbox littered with boring corporate/legal/OTP kind of stuff. So, it is understandable why they think of it that way.

But there’s a simple solution to this.

Create a separate email address that you use for nothing else but talking to your friends. Believe me, when you will open that inbox, you will never feel like how you use to feel now.