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20071115 Thursday November 15, 2007
Death of Email? Not So Much Computers

A hot topic of the day (and yesterday) was this article entitled The Death of Email.  Likewise, this follow-up story.

Summary: Teens and tweens don't use email, so it will die.

I think they said the same thing about regular snail mail when email became popular.  It's still here, and so will email be.

That's not to say email's usage won't decline.  It will.  Just like postage mail usage has declined.  But there is a still a need for postage mail and there will always be a need for email.

The reason kids don't use email is because they don't need it.  They also don't need a filing cabinet to hold their tax returns, house deeds and insurance policies.  But they will.

Kids also don't need (although they do want) a drivers license.  What do filing cabinets and drivers licenses have to do with email?  They provide what email does online:

  • Identity
  • Archiving

These two features are what email provides and what kids don't need, yet.  What the kids don't need from email is communication.  They've got that covered.  But when they start to need a confirmed identity and safe storage of important information they are going to find that SMS and IM don't cut it.

Now, it's just as likely that something new will come along to replace email in terms of identity and storage.  There are already things like openID and numerous online file storage systems, but none yet that combine them like email does.  Something like Facebook, or one of the coming Open Social sites, could probably write something like this.  But Facebook still requires an email address to sign up!  :-)

I looked into replacing email as the primary means of communicating with my hockey team, but we're either all too old, or it's just too soon.  Probably both.

So, email won't die.  It will just become the "right tool for the right job" as other communication tools become more mainstream.  If humans ever colonize space (hey, we're talking about the future!) then "what's old is new again" will occur and email (space email!) will likely be used to send messages across the long distances where instant communication isn't possible.  And future historians will look back at this blog and recognize me as the genius that I am.


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