Everybody seems to know what Element and Matrix are, but I cannot find a concise explanation on the website what they are. Element seems to be some kind of "communications platform", whatever that may be. Can someone please give a brief explanation for us not so cool kids?
Element is a client, matrix is a protocol, synapse is a mainline backend server. There are other clients (front-ends) and servers available on top of the matrix protocol. Hope that helps.