I wouldn’t even compare email and social media. To me these are two different tools and I use them for different purposes. I like my email to come downloaded on my machine and not to keep it on a server. I can then reliably back up all my contact information, my messages and drafts. I don’t trust that even Gmail and Yahoo mail will always be there for me when I need them. Even Google servers go down at times. And do they guarantee that they will never lose your data due to unforeseen technical events? As a user you have more control over your email than whatever chat history you’ve created on social media sites. Imagine that some of the social media sites aren’t going to be around in the next few years: many of them are still money loosing ventures. Email is going away? I bet overhyping of social media will fade away before that.

Chris-

Really nice article.

I think your point (1) is the best support for email sticking around for a VERY long time. However, I don’t believe it will continue to be our primary means of communicating.

A friend of mine is a systems analyst for a large university. He’s spent time studying email traffic among undergrads and grad students.

He maintains email traffic among undergrads is minimal. They do not use email, except to communicate with “adults” who don’t use facebook, twitter or texting.

Most eye-opening for me were his stats on inbox capacity for undergrads vs. grads. Undergrads used about 25% of capacity, whereas grad students used 95% or more!

Best,
Laura

Email won’t go away soon and be replaced by social media. They are synergistic and support each other (social media tends to be more mass vs targeted for email). However connected set-top boxes may soon erode generic email as a target communications vehicle

Email is one of the most precious commodities online for very goog reasons.
Using email allows the personalization of online interactions and business exchange. Companies are paying higher prices tan ever to collect emails for their marketing campaigns.

One other indicator of email importance is the increase in email spam. Once the bad guys leave then we will know that email is doomed. That’s not the case yet.

Besides the social networks have not mature enough in terms of demographic adoptions that most companies see social media as another company time waster. More and more youngsters are spending time on the web these days and that explains the rise of social networks. As far as doing business, email is still on eof the main means of communication, just like the phone and snail mail.

Any new medium of communication is just another line in the information highway. Therefore it can just allow smoother traffic, in this case, better communication opportunity.

I for one agree with you: Email is here to stay.

One way I notice that social networking is replacing email – and this is really great! – is in the sending around of big ol’ pics from the family. Now they just upload them to fb and I can browse at my leisure.

I have a question: doesn’t anyone text directly to another person’s phone anymore? I’m tired of reading other people’s personal messages to each other on my fb wall.

For those of you old enough to remember, think about VHS Video vs. BETA Video, Touch-Tone Telephones vs. Dial Phones, Black and White TV vs. HDTV. Well, don’t ever say never, just because it does not make sense. There are people out there that still Hand-write a letter, but many that don’t. Yes, there are a lot of people who don’t use Social Media and never will and I don’t personally think that it will replace E-Mail, but I would not say never. Only time will tell.

Well the way I see it is like this. Since Humans first created the written word, we have developed the need to write things down both for ourselves and to send to others. The method in which we have done this has obviously been evolving since the first word was written. We have come from stone tablets to parchment and now email / social networks and the like. It is clear that the method with which we use to do this will continue to evolve, as our technology increases. However I do believe that there will always be some type of ‘direct point contact method’ such as email or similar in the future. It may change it’s form and name, but personal written communications is a basic desire of the human race. It’s also nice to know that Apparel such as T-Shirts and Hoodies will probably always be around as well.

Email is the hub that we need to keep connected to everything else – as it is anyway. Email might become useless /replaced at some point in time, but not in the near future. The fact is though, that the amount of personal email has diminished over time, but I still have friends who insist on using Email instead of having a Skype conversation, which I’d prefer in many cases, but since I can’t really tell them that “I don’t have email” or “I don’t want to install email” I’m stuck with it as long as they send me email. So I would guess that as long as there’s an email server working, people will keep using it, just like writing letters…

When you think about it; Even writing on stone hasn’t died out yet. Just have a stroll at a grave yard or any park with memorial statues on it.

You really can’t compare social media and email. Social media is designed to communicate to a group while email is designed for one on one communication. There is some overlap of functionality there, but as a business owner I would never communicate with a client using Facebook or Twitter.

I do think that email needs to evolve into a secure protocol with some sort of authentication to get rid of SPAM and email spoofing. Maybe a different protocol altogether is needed.