Letters to the Editor
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You SHOULD have your own email account, it should be "expected," not "secret"
I can see why couples would have a joint (or, in the case of those with kids, a "family") email account--for essentially the same reason they would have a joint checking account. It's for handling things that are related to both of you, like party invitations, cards, probably even online bills. It can be a practical thing.
That said, it shouldn't be your ONLY account. I am not interested in wading through my partner's relationship-insensitive grad student mail. He is not interested in wading through my equally relationship-insensitive women's networking group mail. Neither of us is interested in reading mail from the other's mother, which is very much directed to the child, not the partner. The way my mail program works, it would be a logistical nightmare, too--I'd constantly be accidentally deleting unread mail that wasn't mine, or accidentally marking it read, and I'm sure sometimes I'd fix it and sometimes I wouldn't, and he'd do the same thing. Not to mention that we'd be trying to read it from two computers--only works if you use webmail, which we're not. Yuck.
I do know a married couple who shares (only shares), and they're my age (early 30s) and also work in the tech industry. Boggles my mind, frankly. I don't know anyone else who does.