Is personal email dead?

[zinneken]

In our family and social circle we have noticed a gradual but clear reduction of personal email activity, especially over the last year.

With the advent of free sms packages as well as phone data becoming very affordable if not cheap for using social media (bloody facebook!) and instant message services, we see our friends and relatives leave email. I know our personal email boxes are decreasingly being used, and we hardly ever send pictures through our mailbox any more mainly because we shoot raw and email not being set-up to be great at sending loads of +10mb shots and us being lazy to convert them to jpg. But friends not shooting in raw hardly ever send any pictures by email any more either, they post them on social media for all or select to see.

We know many people who check their personal mailbox only once a week while in the past it would have been daily or even more frequent.

It's come to the point where if we want to organise something among friends for tonight, we won't use email because many won't see the email. We'll use sms in our case, many use social media. We have "lost out" on a couple of occasions because invites were sent through social media and not by email/sms/phone. We've been called a number of times in the evening with friends asking "do we wait for you, are you coming" and we saying "we didn't get the info cause we're not on social media, send us an sms or call us next time".

Despite the increasing strain, so far we've managed to refuse and stay off the social media. Are we bound to gradually leaving email behind in order to stay in touch with our broader circle because everyone else does it and no longer use regular email? Is personal email dead/dying? Sort of be a sheep to stay with the herd and have uncle sam herd us or else risk being rather isolated?

Really interested in your experiences and thoughts!

[kaptitsky]

Is postal mail dead? Are package services dead? Are paper based books dead? Are blogs dead? Is Facebook dead?

Communication patterns shift, sure. You go where your contacts are. EMail, Social Media, SMS, Messenger, whatever.

But that shift doesn't make other forms obsolete or "dead" as you put it.

Instead, we use a wider array of communication techniques to suit out message and audience.

There are lots of places where e-mail is the best medium. Others where it is not.

Email isn't the most instant technique anymore. It doesn't punch into people's lives for instant attention; other tools have taken that place.

But writing something heartfelt, thoughtful or personal? Transferring instructions or reference material?

Hard to do that in 160 characters or on a wall.

E-mail is only dead to people who believe in oversimplified short messages.

You know, like the message "E-mail is dead."

[petergh]

I agree with kaptitsky on most points. Email never was and never will be suitable for the same "instant messaging" type messages that Facebook etc. handle so well. It was only (mis)used for that purpose until better solutions came along.

I'm actually glad Facebook came along, because it took a load of my email inbox, which is now reserved for mailing lists, personal letters, business communication (invoices, bills, itineraries, etc.), instead of being bombarded with massive picture emails, links to youtube videos, and whatnot. In other words, all the stuff that people now put on Facebook instead, where I can peruse it at will.

Come to think of it, Facebook is one of the best spam filters I've ever had the pleasure of using. And it's free!

[somdcomputerguy]

Originally Posted by petergh

Come to think of it, Facebook is one of the best spam filters I've ever had the pleasure of using. And it's free!

And it reminds me when all my friend's birthday date's are coming up!

[jeffpan]

email is still the No.1 for business communications.

[somdcomputerguy]

Originally Posted by jeffpan

email is still the No.1 for business communications.

I run a private forum, using FluxBB forum software, and it doesn't have any kind of PM features by default. A mod can be added in to have that, but I haven't added, and have no desire to add, such a feature. One of the members complained about the lack of such a thing, and I replied that that is what email is for..

[petergh]

True, but that's not a viable solution if the forum software doesn't allow users to see other users' email addresses in the first place.

[somdcomputerguy]

I have that forum configured so that members use a form that will email the intended recipient. That recipient can reply to that email, as the 'reply-to' address is the email address of the sender, and the sender will then know the email address of whomever he/she form-mailed. This is all made clear to the user before the form is even loaded, and is also stated in the original email sent (basically: don't use this form or reply to an email sent from it if you don't want your email address known to each other).

[FredOnline]

Originally Posted by jeffpan

email is still the No.1 for business communications.

Still No.1 for me - I get to show off my bespoke domain e-mail addresses!

[Jack]

For personal communication, yes, e-mail is dead. It's been effectively replaced by Facebook, Google Plus, Google Plus Hangouts, Skype, instant messengers, etc. For business communication and newsletters and such though, e-mail is still king.

[Adrian Bell]

No it's not. A lot of my friends receive and send email on their moblle phones. Therefore is sms now dead (or redundant)?

[ioneja]

Email is a long way from dead, but it is at least middle-aged.

[Berenburger]

Originally Posted by zinneken

In our family and social circle we have noticed a gradual but clear reduction of personal email activity, especially over the last year.

Especially Whatsapp is a lot used for personal communication here. It's very popular in my country.

[Dutchie007]

Originally Posted by Berenburger

Especially Whatsapp is a lot used for personal communication here. It's very popular in my country.

yes Berenburger...same goes for Paraguay. Especialy Young people (under 30 or so) do NOT use emails....no way. They use Whatsapp...or other IM apps....or even send an sms. But email...NO. Even many companies do NOT respons to emails!!! At least thats my personal experience here.

Facebook also has a large group of active users here.....and before facebook was huge...Orkut was the way to go;-) But these days are over...nowadays it´s only FB.

Dutchie.


PS: do some people still use Hyves in the Netherlands?? I don´t use that anymore....since at least 1,5 years or so.

[Berenburger]

Originally Posted by Dutchie007

PS: do some people still use Hyves in the Netherlands?? I don´t use that anymore....since at least 1,5 years or so.

Hyves is a sinking ship. Nowadays it is mostly used by teenagers between the 10 and 14 year old. The Telegraaf Media Group will take a decision about the future at the end of the year. I expect it will be terminated.