

Email Use Drops by 59% Amongst US Teens in One Year - gatsby
http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2011/02/09/18488-email-use-drops-by-59-amongst-us-teens-in-one-year/

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bpodgursky
Email is a protocol. Phones are a protocol. Facebook is... a company. I don't
like the idea that the coming nexus of communication is a single-company
provider, with zero incentive to open up a "facebook message protocol"... they
simply want to be the only source of communication.

I find this scary.

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rudyfink
I wouldn't worry that much. Phones were a company once too.

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terrellm
Yes, but I can switch companies when I'm not happy with my current company or
don't like their policies. Also, my AT&T phone can call my friend's Verizon
phone.

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harshpotatoes
That wasn't always the case. There was a time before I was born where you
either had a phone through Ma Bell or you didn't have a phone.

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mediaman
Yes, but market forces did not solve that problem.

Should we not worry about Facebook because government will solve it?

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Dobbs
Before I got into the "professional" world I never used my email. I had one
mostly to sign up for things and a few notifications from services.

When I started my first job, that was related to my career, my email use sky
rocketed. Email is now my life blood. I have over 50 servers that drop me
various forms of messages and notifications. I have discussions with my boss
about the direction we should take things. My coworkers will use it to ask
questions.

Email is useful. In fact I would say it is one of the most useful pieces of
modern technology we have, but only for a subset of uses. Most people don't
have the needs, at least in their private life, that email fulfills.
Particularly teens.

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wladimir
I think that's kind of the point. We, as adults, use e-mail, especially at
work. By the time these teens get to work, what will happen is a mix of 1)
They adapt to using email 2) They'll use their way of communicating with their
then-colleagues.

New technologies are adopted more slowly at work, but eventually they will be,
because people will use what is efficient for them. (For a good recent
example, look at the adoption of wikis in companies)

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WingForward
This article makes illogical conclusions.

Here is the primary source:
[http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/1/W...](http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/1/Web-
based_Email_Shows_Signs_of_Decline_in_the_U.S._While_Mobile_Email_Usage_on_the_Rise)

The chart in the original post has in its title "Web-based e-mail". That chart
represents the amount of time spent using web-based e-mail. Not the number of
e-mails sent or received on web clients. Not e-mail app usage. And not mobile
usage.

Mobile e-mail usage amongst teens has gone up 40%. Isn't that a more likely
reason for the decline in web-based e-mail that an unquantified Facebook
influence?

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pama
How accurate are these types of measurements? Even if teen email use in the US
dropped dramatically last year, how do we know it was replaced by facebook
use?

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brc
Exactly - how on earth do you compute 'teen email use'? If it is self-reported
it is likely to be inaccurate. If it's based on some type of network analysis,
the amount of spam would skew statistics, because spam is only sorted
generally at the point of arrival.

Anyways, color me skeptical.

Even if it was Facebook messaging taking over from email, that's hardly a
problem, because in the eyes of the user, facebook messages are email. You
have an inbox, sent items, new message, etc. If/when the teens get to a job or
study, they aren't going to be stumped by viewing a messaging client instead
of a facebook page.

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codejoust
I am an younger person who sends a magnitude more emails than text messages
and facebook messages. Email is useful for classes, coordinating groups, and
etc. where facebook and text messages are too limiting to use. Email is also a
useful tool to communicate to all age groups.

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phatbyte
The thing with email, is that, it's messy. No matter what you do, you
eventually will start getting unwanted email and spam. It's boring to maintain
a clean email address.

Unfortunatly there isn't any good alternatives to email. Google Wave tried it,
yet, they failed.

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Dramatize
I have two email addresses - one to sign up for things, registrations etc, and
one for personal email.

Works pretty well.

~~~
phatbyte
I have that solution as well, but, my main email always ends up with spam
content somehow. Maybe it's bad luck

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ceslami
There is an entire generation of youth who have grown up with Facebook and
social networks at the center of their internet experience. While email will
likely not be extinct any time soon, it may be used less as a social tool, and
more as a business tool.

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afterburner
"emails may simply be too long or too stuffy for daily, non-professional
communication"

Nah. The reason is no-one wants to log in to two things. People who start out
most of their online life on a social network aren't going to want to log in
to a second thing (email account) to communicate.

I started out on email, and don't want to log in to a second thing (Facebook)
to communicate. I let Facebook notify my email when it gets a message though.
I didn't want to get into Twitter, but Buzz fit into my Gmail habit (and can
even link to Twitter).

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yogiprerna
I don't think this means the 'end of email'. This seems to me like a natural
progression. Before FB, Twitter and cheap SMS, email was the most effective
means of digital communication. Now we have different tools for different
types of digital communication. That doesn't mean email is becoming obsolete.
It's a bit like saying mobile-touch computers will replace all other types of
computers. I don't see that happening at all. Instead, we just use a number of
different computers (in all shapes and sizes), for different situations.

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shrughes
When I was a teenager, in the early 2000s, we hardly used email at all. We all
used AIM to talk to one another. Pretty much the only reason to use email was
to sign up for things online.

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hkuo
A drop in email use is no biggie. If it's just about communication, people
will IM, facebook message, tweet, SMS, whatever. No biggie. But email isn't
just about communication; it's also about identity. And as far as that aspect,
email will never go away. At least, I believe, not in my lifetime.

To put it simply, as long as you need an email address to sign up for
Facebook, email will not go away.

