Is email address the wrong choice for usernames?
hga: I have enough RSI that I don't do SMS or instant messaging.  If I wanted to talk to you, but it wasn't worth a phone call, I'd punt.My solution to many of the general set of problems with email you cite was to get a Fastmail account (https://www.fastmail.fm), which does a fantastic job of spam filtering and would allow you to filter the email from those pesky relatives.And as gexla notes, you must have a working email address to do a whole bunch of things on the net.