03.17.2009 12:05 pm
Is email going the way of the 8-track tape player?
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
I first realized email was in trouble last year when I was writing about teens and their texting habits. The story was based on a study done by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
One of the things that stood out to me was how teens view it. Among their daily communication options, it was actually their least favorite choice, falling behind texting, instant messaging, phone conversations, etc.
Well, here’s a take by John C. Dvorak at PCmag.com about the death of email. He offers nine reasons why my favorite communication tool is on its way out. Among them:
- The ever-changing address. People change their e-mail address far too often. Few have a permanent e-mail address where people can always contact them-or even understand the importance of a permanent address.
- The e-mail tourist. This is very similar to the empty-box scenario, but in this case we have a person who really has no intention of ever using e-mail and stupidly gives out an e-mail address because it is the thing to do. This sort of person is the most detestable, in my opinion.
- The useless filter. Most modern e-mail systems filter spam to a greater or lesser degree. Unfortunately, the creeps who develop spamming tricks work endlessly to bypass these filters, resulting in a haphazard process that causes e-mail to simply get lost.
So what do you think? Is email dying? How do you prefer to communicate with others?
Tim has covered a wide range of topics, including tourism, crime, aviation and gambling, since becoming a reporter in 1990. The Oklahoma native joined the Post-Dispatch in 2007 after spending nine years in Orlando. In his spare time, he's often exploring one virtual world or another. He can be reached at tbarker@post-dispatch.com. 
I still like email a lot, but I know my daughter isn’t there. She has a gmail account — that she rarely checks. If you want to get her reliably, ping her on your Facebook account, or text her, like the study says.
Ultimately, I find I’m reachable in a whole lot of ways — and email is sort of the engine behind it. I get alerts on my FB account to my email. I get direct messages from Twitter in my email….Who knows, though. That might change.
I don’t think Email will ever die. I just think it will become more combined with text messaging somehow. As a communication method, I prefer Email to text messaging, primarily because I don’t wish to stand around wasting my phone battery tapping out a message. It takes far too long to text an intelligible message. I can get a yes or no in half the time by talking on my phone (interesting idea for a PHONE) or by sending an Email with a real keyboard. I bet many texters and Blackberry addicts have never heard of that one important button on their device– the OFF button. I use it frequently. And, now I actually notice the grass and other people around me.
This article is ridiculously short sighted.
Email is still, and likely always will be, the dominant form of communication for all major corporations. It is considered MISSION CRITICAL by almost every major business in the US.
Yes, text messaging is nice, and it has it’s place. However, Email is more reliable and much more secure. Not to mention archivable, searchable, etc. etc. Now that most mobile devices have either ActiveSync or RIM capabilities, email is even more pervasive and mobile.
Maybe spending a little more time thinking about your opinion before publishing it next time might be in order? There is a world outside your personal anectdotal experiences that should be considered.
I don’t have an iPhone or a data plan on my phone, so email is my main form of communication with friends and businesses (account information, company newsletters, ezines, etc).
While Facebook has its uses, I don’t like having to log in every time to read or send emails. Besides, unless they are my “Friend”, I can’t receive emails from them through FB anyway.
I personally love email, and while it has pitfalls (changing email addresses, not checking every day, etc), I believe it’s still better than the alternative methods that are available right now.
Nothing is going to be perfect, but I believe it’s the best form of communication at the moment.
I have to agree with the article to a certain degree. I think email for personal use is getting less and less popular. If I want to contact one of my friends most likely I will send a message through FB. I remember when people would send out a mass email to all their friends updating them on their life or what not. Anymore if you want to know what someone is doing you will check them out on FB or twitter.
I do think email will still exist in the corporate and business world.
Sometimes I will use text messages but for the most part I think it is a waste of time.
Once they start working they might need to rely on e-mail more. Always having something in writing is nice.
I agree with everyone who has posted so far. E-mail is not going to die and I find it the best way to get ahold of people you can’t always reach by phone.
E-mail is critical to my job. I work at a county-seat newspaper in a small town. My schedule allows me to work from home, so it’s a big plus when I can get my work sent to me, have the time to edit and format it, and send it back ready to go on a page.
I’m also a wheelchair user, so when it’s too snowy and/or icy for me to safely get out on a production day, I can e-mail my stuff to the main office.
There is no way text messaging would help me when it comes to my job. I can’t send large files on a mobile device and honestly, I don’t want to try.
As far as changing my e-mail address on a whim-I don’t. The only time I changed my e-mail address was when I switched DSL providers and I had to create a new identity.
I also don’t like to waste my cell phone battery tapping a message out on that ridiculously-small keyboard. Saying yes, no or a complete sentence on the PHONE is quicker for me. Call me old-fashioned, but I like typing on a full-sized keyboard and looking at a nice big monitor instead of a five or six-inch square when I’m writing my messages.
Maybe I don’t understand your article or lack of one, but it’s safe to assume a “better” tool will replace email eventually. You provide no timelines of when this may happen, how it will effect our personal or business lives and no insights into the next new tool that will replace email. If you ask me, journalism has gone the way of the 8-track.
I find it a very major tool of my job as I have to answer to 30 plants about 350 different branded bags. Doing this by e-mail gives me a place to go back and follow when I need to understand why we changed, charged, stopped, etc. Before this time if was filed in files. Today it is with me all the time.
Texting, instant messaging, voice mail, does not give me the back up information I need to keep things straight.
I believe it will not go dead because of texting, instant messaging, voice mail, etc. Gail Crause (aka Baglady)
Eventually we’ll just have v-mail (video mail). I predict that will be the norm.