The Death of Email
If you know anyone under, say, 30, you know that email is less popular than texting.
Marketers have noticed. Mobile advertising is getting huge. From TechCentral:
...mobile device users are addicted to their devices. Nokia reported at MindTrek 2010 that the average person looks at their phone 150 times a day, or once every six-and-a-half minutes of every waking hour.
“Coca-Cola’s global strategy is 70:20:10. Seventy percent of its digital spend goes to mobile messaging — MMS and SMS — 20% to mobile Web and only 10% to apps,” says [journalist Tomi] Ahonen.
For some reason, a text has more impact than an email:
A study conducted in New Zealand found that the average e-mail is read 48 hours after it is sent, while the average SMS is read in four minutes. “SMS is literally 720 times faster than e-mail in message-opening throughput.”
Maybe that's just New Zealand. (They're weird down there.) But I don't think so. I know that I tend to jump when a text comes through, while I let my inbox fill up for hours and hours.
So email -- which not too long ago represented the fastest, most efficient way to communicate -- now lags in effectiveness to texting.
What happens when texting starts to seem too slow?
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Comments:
Jun '10
Re: The Death of Email
dogsbody: "What happens when texting starts to seem too slow?"
I don't often invent devices but my goodness, Rob's question inspired an absolute brainwave. I envision a device that bypasses the keyboard completely and picks up your words directly fromyour voiceand sends them directly to the recipient's ear canal.
I'm going to call it the "phone" -- from the Greek φωνή, meaning "voice". Now all I need is a venture capitalist to fund me. · 1 minute ago
Make it run on solar energy and the Obama administration will throw billions of taxpayers' dollars at you.
Jan '12
Re: The Death of Email
I'm under 30 and I use email, texts, and phone calls. They are each a method of communication and which one I choose is based on what I need to communicate.
Email is used for work, sending links to family and friends, and anything that requires time to write. Texts are usually to send quick notes to friends and family, such as confirming dinner plans. Phone calls are for longer conversations--calling my mom, catching up with old friends--or for anything business related where I need a quick response.
Re: The Death of Email
Hmmm. This sounds to me like you're hearing "magic lady" voices in your head.
May '11
Re: The Death of Email
The obvious reason is that texting is easier to access. No logging in, sorting through messages, etc. All you need is your cell which you more than likely carry with you anyways. Plus it is pretty much instantaneous.
One of the reasons I avoid my e-mail inbox is the massive amounts of spam that populate it. As more people use texts, I can imagine the spammers will begin targeting our phones as well... I am SO not looking forward to that.
Dec '11
Re: The Death of Email
To borrow a line from member FeliciaB, this is a Like!
Edited on March 8, 2012 at 9:02amApr '11
Re: The Death of Email
Since Tom beat me to the mind meld, I'll have to settle for Morse Code.
Dec '11
Re: The Death of Email
I dont leave voice mail. If I wanted to talk to you later I would have called you later or sent an Email.
I dont use texts for work. Now that work switched out my blackberry (BASTARDS), for an Iphone (CULTIST BASTARDS) I may use texts more.
Texts are great for routine communication. Like I am at baggage claim C1 or something like that. Trying to explain a technical problem and its resolution is an emailer.
What is interesting about all the abbreviations is that they arent new. Anything that placed a premium on key strokes always is quickly abbrievated. Look at early computing, and Ham radio communication.
Jun '11
Re: The Death of Email
Clicking "like" just wasn't enough on this one, EJ. Perfect.
EJHill
WTSN! Come here. Need 2 C U! · 9 hours ago
Dec '10
Re: The Death of Email
This is somewhat tangential, but I think relevant
I am an engineer. Another engineer and I were waiting for a test cell to get to the proper temperature so we could start our test. With us were a janitor and a test technician. We were comparing cell phones. The other engineer and I had inexpensive flip phones. Both the janitor and the technician had $300 razors. The combined wages of the two probably did not equal either of ours.
I’m guessing that the technician was in his thirties. The other engineer and I are in our fifties. This might explain it except for the fact that the janitor was in her fifties too.
Maybe it is just that engineers are cheap.
Nov '10
Re: The Death of Email
Email inside work, text outside of work. Why? What I want to say at work in an email is usually more of an announcement of a communication of various facts or policies or changes. Wha I want to do in a text is have a remote conversation. Two totally different things are going on. Back before IM and
Aug '10
Re: The Death of Email
#Bell, [redacted] IDN LOL,SOS, ASAP !WTSN BFF
EJ ,What does it all mean ? Can't we just get along and send jpegs instead ?
Edited on March 8, 2012 at 4:49pmAug '10
Re: The Death of Email
I must protest the redaction of my acronym for Whither the Fool ?
or was it Waste Thru Frivolity , What Truth Follows , Why's There Food ?
Who Threw First , Webster Thinks Fast , Where's the Fudge....and on. Sorry to offend, I apologize and I am waiting for the apology from Marion Barry when he said [redacted].
Nov '10
Re: The Death of Email
As more people use texts, I can imagine the spammers will begin targeting our phones as well... I am SO not looking forward to that.
The other day I got a text that told me that I won a gift card to Victoria's Secret, and all I had to do was visit this one website!
It's begun.
Apr '11
Re: The Death of Email
As a lawyer, I can tell you that I abhor text messages, because they are ephemeral. Most carriers delete text messages on their servers after a few days, making them virtually irretrievable. Without the relative permanence of emails, how else am I supposed to find a smoking gun in a case???
Dec '11
Re: The Death of Email
This is a feature not a bug.
Aug '10
Re: The Death of Email
Jonathan
Edited on March 9, 2012 at 3:38amI am pondering the wisdom of your disclosure of the " bathing with your laptop " game rules.