Email Is So Last Millennium
from the old-fogeys-only dept
Textually is pointing out that a new study in South Korea shows that kids there are staying away from email, saying that it’s mainly for old people. They only use email when they want to communicate with their “elders.” When communicating with friends, they’d much rather use SMS, instant messaging or the web. This doesn’t sound like just a few people sending fewer emails, either. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (middle, high school and college-aged) said they rarely, if ever, use email any more. While there are certain disadvantages to other solutions, it appears that kids today don’t like the slow nature of email, and find other forms of communication much more responsive. While it’s unlikely that email is simply going to go away any time soon, it’s worth watching how other systems, that are often so closely tied to email, evolve to match the changes as well. So much of the internet is now closely tied to email, that completely moving away from it is likely to have unintended consequences.
Comments on “Email Is So Last Millennium”
MPAA utilizes internet?
After suing consumers for downloading movies on the Internet and getting ‘piracy’ under control, the MPAA claims it’s going to utilize the Internet to market its movies, presumably through so-called legitimate sites like Cinema Now.
Good luck! After these terror tactices, I’ll never touch the Internet to obtain a movie, no matter how ‘legitimate’ the site claims to be.
No Subject Given
Guess it’s time to get a patent on voice activated SMS for cell phones.
The reason is . . .
kids don’t have much to say that is worthy of more persistant forms of communication. 🙂 Actually, I’m only half joking. Think about the kinds of conversations most kids have. Everything is in the present. Kids are more focused on the here and now which means that their communication places a higher importance on instant response.
The violence of non-email
Man, my life lately, with women from multiple continents chasing me, and multiple jealous men threatening to kill me, has been like a thriller movie of late. Text messaging, cell phones make possible all these new kinds of psychological violence. I won’t go into the literally gory details — I’ll just say that Hollywood hasn’t made enough internet killer movies yet.
Re: The violence of non-email
Dorpus wrote: Man, my life lately, with women from multiple continents chasing me…
Maybe they’ve never met anyone from your planet before.
Saying something carefully
I’m one of those fogies who cannot imagine giving up email for IM. I recognize that this may be one of those inter-generational culture things, but let’s bear this in mind: One of the original uses of email was to allow a person to state something carefully, more carefully than in conversation. Email is excellent for making points and giving references.
An early article about email use in Bell Labs expressed astonishment at hearing a conversation in the hallway end with “I’ll email you an explanation”. But the article then went on to explain how email was a better vehicle of communication for many matters.
I’m glad I didn’t have to IM this comment, and took time to think about it!
– PB
http://precision-blogging.blogspot.com