What???? Yes, email is eventually going to go the way of the dinosaur. That’s a bold statement. And why do I say that?
In his book , Socialnomics, author Erik Qualman theorizes that email is becoming antiquated. Younger generations (like Generation Y) prefer the conversational flow and one-to-many communication of the social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.
Almost laughable was the account of an Apple iTunes group executive who said that a 22-year old new hire had literally never sent an email. This person had only communicated with his friends via instant messenger, texting, phone call (I’m guessing on a cell phone), or Facebook comments.
Yow! I feel so old!
The other aspect that will unseat email is the permission factor that social media provides. Email just replaced telemarketing. Same annoyance and interruption factor. Just easier to delete and ignore. With social media, your followers, friends, fans, whatever, want to get your updates. If they don’t want to anymore, they’ll just unfriend or unfollow you.
In addition to feeling older, I’m also feeling so overwhelmed. Seems like everything I’ve always done is either changing rapidly or is becoming obsolete. And it is with the dawning of this new world of communications that I have converted the Promo With Purpose Today e-newsletter to the new blog format. Sure, you can still get the same content via email if you sign up for the email subscription. But you might also want to take it one step further and convert your subscription to an RSS feed that you read in Google Reader (or other RSS reader system).
Click Here to Read More About Socialnomics
Tags: blog, Erik Qualman, Facebook, Social Media, Socialnomics, Trends, Twitter
Leave A Reply (4 comments So Far)
Eric Lukazewski
751 days ago
Heidi, great thoughts. It’s hard to imagine email ever going extinct. It would be like telling someone that we don’t need the Postal Service about 15 years ago….yet here we are; an idea that’s not so crazy any more.
It’s quite interesting that a lot of my day to day dialogue, with colleagues and clients alike, is done via Skype or some form of Social Media. Personally, I’m using email less and less while I find alternative, real-time solutions that have advanced beyond the capabilities of email.
I don’t know if it’s fair to claim that email will go extinct, but I do believe it must and will evolve to survive. Google Wave is a great look into what email may look like in 5 years. But it too, will eventually fall victim to another systematic process that facilitates our day to day lives just a little more. Evolution is two things: Eternal and Escalating
Heidi Thorne
751 days ago
Agreed, it is hard to believe that there may be a day when email will be only a memory. I also am using email less and less, alternatively using Twitter, Facebook (tough getting acclimated to that one), Google Reader, and text messaging to keep informed and connected with my network. Welcome to the Evolution!
Thank you for always taking the time to thoughtfully comment. I truly appreciate it!