DISQUS

Dave Walker · 2 years ago

I'm not sure dead, or even unhealthy, is the right term. Unglamourous, maybe.

Email is a tool, and every tool has its purpose. You (probably) wouldn't try driving nails with your saw, and email has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Over the last couple of years we've seen a wide range of new tools added to our communication toolbox and suddenly email has lost its lustre. I doubt it's even unhealthy - it has just been relegated to its rightful place as just another communication tool.

Joe Duck · 2 years ago

by CC’ing everyone under the sun, sending long messages late on a Friday afternoon, including miscellaneous attachments for no reason and otherwise gumming things up, certain people achieve the appearance of work without actually having to do any

EXCUSE ME MATT, but now that you've let the cat out of the bag how am I going to maintain appearances?

-----
I wonder how much of the problem is from spam and a related failure of "white listing" systems such that you only get mail from trusted folks. I really like the audit trail for biz items and don't want to give that up. If Yahoo and Google do this right, they'll find ways for people to prioritize and categorize email and people quickly and in line with real life. That really would be a great social network for me.

Tom O'Leary · 2 years ago

Electronic mail will be sent, albeit across a growing number of platforms (to include mobile and smartphone devices) for many years to come.

Let us not forget that all of these young kids each have two older parents who will continue to use email as their primary means of communication.

Email is evolving along with other technologies.

Earlier reports showed that young people still use email for business or professional communication, though they are using IM and other microcontent formats for personal communication.

"Online, teens and Generation Ys behave differently than the old timers. They are more mobile, more social and more networked than the boomers ever will be. But they still email. According to Christopher Salazar, email for the younger generations is used primarily for business-related messages and professional relationships outside of their social circle. He and his posse offer their attention to different channels for everything else, to include SMS, social networks and instant messaging."

For more information, read:

Generation Y Email?
http://www.messagingtimes.com/blog/?p=1053

tish grier · 2 years ago

just love the way you called email a "massive time-sucking drain on productivity."

But, quite frankly, I (and lots of other people) have found social networking sites like Facebook to also be massive time-sucking drains on creativity...

So, perhaps which time-sucking drain we choose to use the most might have to do with whether or not we have to have that "audit trail." The "audit trail" is often what differentiates business communications from adolescent, friend-to-friend or message from mom-and-dad communications. We can ignore Mom and Dad, but we can't necessarily ignore the hostile co-worker or peevish, control-freak boss...

And the idea of my email becoming a social networking site is pretty horrific--no refuge, no work done for sure!

Antje Wilsch · 2 years ago

just wait until they will get jobs (well we hope) and yes they will have to use email and, god forbid, letters/phone. How can one do business on twitter, social networks, text and IM? There is a time and a place for all of these. Kids have no reason to send email b/c they are instantly connected and know each other. But the same personal rules of engagement don't apply in a professional setting. Just give them a few years. They said email would be the post office killer and I still get daily mail from the post office.

Antje Wilsch · 2 years ago

just wait until they will get jobs (well we hope) and yes they will have to use email and, god forbid, letters/phone. How can one do business on twitter, social networks, text and IM? There is a time and a place for all of these. Kids have no reason to send email b/c they are instantly connected and know each other. But the same personal rules of engagement don't apply in a professional setting. Just give them a few years. They said email would be the post office killer and I still get daily mail from the post office.

Laura · 2 years ago

Silliness! Email is doing better than it was not so long ago. What was killing email was spam, and spam fighting is getting better. Phishing is still a problem, but that can happen anywhere.

But until there is a proper replacement for (reasonably) private asynchronous communication more than 144 characters long, email will live on. You can't run a business on IM and Twitter or by txtng or "poking" people. Maybe email is not fun socially for kids, but right now there's no replacement except to move backwards to snail mail.

Greg Cangialosi · 2 years ago

Far, far, far from being dead for sure. Like Tom O'Leary mentions above, email is evolving with the rest of the landscape. Its role is changing and despite what other may think, I believe its role is becoming more important than ever.

Sure email has had its challenges and still does, but as a social and certainly a marketing medium, its alive and well and about to be seen in a new light soon.

Thanks for the post - this is a good conversation.

- Greg