Comments on: what i mean when i say “email is dead” in reference to teens

By: Matt Katz

Matt Katz — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:21:17 +0000

This has chilling implications.
Email is as distributed and free as the internet is. Almost every form of IM that you describe other than Jabber based IM goes through a major corporate network.

You can’t myspace or AIM chat or MSN chat without your conversation being logged and being subject to the filtering at that corporation’s whims.

IM handles are also very disposable and evanescent, so we will see more history being lost as chat logs succumb to bitrot.

By: Ansuman

Ansuman — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 10:40:08 +0000

I totally agree. I just interviewed for Microsoft IT today and the guy asked me what the future of the communication technology software could be? I said well social networking of course.. I do check my mail regularly but IM is commoner….

By: technophobe

technophobe — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 17:30:21 +0000

I’m in my 20s and I sill write letters (remember those things) to my friends and family. Nothing compares to the thought, love and attention to detail in a letter and tells people you have made the time to communicate with them.

By: Calvin Spealman

Calvin Spealman — Sun, 06 May 2007 09:58:36 +0000

If MySpace didn’t cripple their feeds and let me get more through them, I would have far less of a problem with the friends of mine who refuse to communicate through any other medium.

By: princeton girl

princeton girl — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 08:58:47 +0000

hey every1 just want to ask is everyone here a teenager and if u are can sum1 add me i am soooooooo board

saabihabegum1994@hotmail.co.uk

By: DRomeo

DRomeo — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:36:20 +0000

PEACE.

I’ve been around the Sun some thirty three times and have just recently discovered the power of IM.

It offers the flexibility and opportunity for conversational “tuning” where adjustments for miscommunication can be achieved quickly.

It provides an artifact if you keep a session open indefinitely or archive conversations–great for business correspondence.

Plus, on many clients you can send files, start voice and video applications, etc.

My initial resistance to IM was that I thought people would be constantly attempting to engage me in conversation–something like a Junior High lunchroom. I visited a friend and he had like twenty IM windows open at once (I thought he was crazy.) I was not aware of the common practice of just ignoring pings until a more appropriate time. It’s not like talking, where it would be rude to just disengage in the middle of someone’s sentence. There seems to be a social contract already in place for managing IM.

IM is fresh…I still have a crush on email

Life is good.

By: DRomeo

DRomeo — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:34:56 +0000

PEACE.

I’ve been around the Sun some thirty three times and have just recently discovered the power of IM.

It offers the flexibility and opportunity for conversational “tuning” where adjustments for miscommunication can be achieved quickly.

It provides an artifact if you keep a session open indefinitely or archive conversations–great for business correspondence.

Plus, on many clients you can send files, start voice and video applications, etc.

IM is fresh…I still have a crush on email

Life is good.

By: lindax

lindax — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:08:43 +0000

my 12 yo kid uses email as her personal db. it is a chronologically organized, but sortable, filing system. she checks it about 2-3 times a week, especially if she knows someone sent her a link or something.

By: julthefool

julthefool — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 07:07:50 +0000

I know of people in professional settings who use IM a lot, but email comes in use for sending attachments, more formal communication, and (duh) when other people are not online.

You say “Do they use it as their primary form of asynchronous communication for talking with their friends?”
But isn’t IM by definition ‘synchronous’ communication? So you have to consider what are the alternatives to email as an asynchronous method of communication. SMS is one too of course, but it costs money and is a bit more of a hassle to send longer notes.

It seems to me that there’ll always be a role for both forms of communication; though as I read someone somewhere suggesting, younger people are more often using their MySpace (or whatever) account as a kind of online ‘mailbox’.

By: Cassie Dara-Abrams

Cassie Dara-Abrams — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 22:53:45 +0000

I’ve looked at the comments above mine and some are from people around my age, 16. I do have lots of friends who only use myspace/facebook/IM now. However, I use email a lot. I use it to email my 23-year old brother, I use it for asking questions to teachers, I use it to communicate with people who I work with at school.. I guess I’m in the minority on this one though!

By the way, why is there a place to put my email address but not my IM screen name/myspace address when I want to write a comment on your blog?

And great blog, I love reading it.