Don't use email... use [BLANK] instead?

tptacek · 2024-03-04T20:33:34 1709584414

Literally anything else. Email is a means to an end. Do you use email today as much as you did 10 years ago? Most people would say "no".

hooverd · 2024-03-04T20:40:25 1709584825

Such as? I just can't think of another technology that facilitates the async behavior of email messages. I know some businesses just use WhatsApp but I don't love it. Maybe we would mandate everyone uses Microsoft Teams.

tptacek · 2024-03-04T21:26:25 1709587585

I talk to friends on Slack, Messenger, Signal, and WhatsApp. I virtually never talk to someone I actually know on email, a trend that started in ~2014 when I discovered Slack.

I do still use email! But only for transactional stuff, like FOIA requests or scheduling local government meetings.

hooverd · 2024-03-04T21:42:33 1709588553

Ah ok, that tracks with my email usage too. I also use it for more official communications. Maybe this should be titled "It's Time to Give Up on Email [for socializing]", lol.

hulitu · 2024-03-06T18:01:07 1709748067

Need to ask for something ? Email. Need a new job ? Email. Need talk to friends ? Whatsapp.

GoblinSlayer · 2024-03-05T13:24:19 1709645059

Is it an improvement to have a whole new vendor locked litigious monopolistic Electron technology stack to communicate with yet another person?

tptacek · 2024-03-05T13:40:22 1709646022

I haven't thought much about it, because my revealed preference (and those of so many people I talk to) is so extraordinarily clear.

hulitu · 2024-03-06T17:59:11 1709747951

Yes. Email you can archive it. Chat messages, not so easy.