Is Email Becoming Passé?

Is Email Becoming Passé?

You’ve heard the rumors, email’s on its way out to be replaced by social media, text messaging, and new technologies.  Email is already passé to Generation Y and Z, so much so that in 2009, Boston College stopped distributing email addresses to incoming freshman.*

I pondered this question while I was cleaning out my email inbox yesterday. It’s amazing to me how quickly emails add up. As someone who’s actively engaged online through social media, and uses a smart phone, I still receive 100-200 emails a day. So will email really ever go away? Maybe not entirely but the technology is there for it to become minimized.

Social Media Networks

I’m finding that my connections through social media networks are replacing many email conversations that would have taken place. It’s simply easier to message someone through Facebook and/or Twitter than to email, and they are likely to respond more quickly.

What’s ironic is that my connection to social media is also what is currently “junking up” my email inbox. All of those notices about new Twitter followers, responses to someone’s Facebook status that I commented on, and invitations to events through Facebook. Can those be turned off? Absolutely. Do I want to do that? I’m not to that point yet but it’s coming.

File Sharing

Of course, we still use email for file sharing, but even that is starting to diminish somewhat. Afterall, many files are too large to email or it’s just easier to upload them to sites like Dropbox, YouTube for videos, or GoogleDocs. With these sites, you also get the benefit of being able to collaborate on a single document. GoogleWave promises to increase the ability for real-time online collaboration once it catches on.

I rarely receive photos by email now with the advent of Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa. I generally receive a link to someone’s online photo album or see it in their feed.

Spam

I still manage to receive more than my share of spam emails, no matter how strong my spam trapper gets, it seems they always find a way around it. Those I could do without completely. You see some spam in social media, especially on Twitter, but it seems easier to combat and report, at least for me.

So is email becoming passé? I guess it depends on who you ask. For me, there will always be a time or place for email but I can see where I will rely on it less and less as new technologies grow in popularity and as more programs are able to interface with social networks.

*Source: Socialnomics