A flurry of blogs
and news items on the Internet last week suggested that young Internet
users are increasingly relying on instant messaging, texting, and
social networking sites to communicate, often via mobile devices, and
almost to the exclusion of e-mail.
One of those blogs, by Chad Lorenz at Slate, even asserted that "e-mail is looking obsolete," under the headline "The Death of E-Mail."
But
the reality is much more complex. Some market reports and analysts
predict that e-mail accounts will continue to grow as other messaging
modes gain popularity and as use of the Internet expands globally.
And
while teenagers under 18 appear to often eschew e-mail for social
networks or IM, three college students under 21 said in interviews that
they rely on e-mail as much as other modes of communication for
complicated, lengthier or formal interactions, such as with professors,
and with other students involved in group projects and other school
work.
The college crowd
"I
used IM a lot in high school, but my IM use decreased in college," said
Matt Melymuka, a junior majoring in finance at Georgetown University in
Washington. "I use e-mail a lot ... very frequently," he said, noting
that he sends e-mail to professors about assignments and to other
students involved in group projects for classes.
He
estimated that the university sends about 10 broadcast e-mails every
day on a range of subjects including public safety. "E-mail is the most
formal and best means of communicating, definitely," he said.
However,
Melymuka also declared himself a "pretty big" text messaging user,
finding that sending text messages from his cell phone is more useful
than e-mail for quick social interactions.
In
similar fashion, Andy Tybus, a freshman majoring in mechanical
engineering at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, said he
checks e-mail at least three times a week to communicate with project
group members and to monitor official messages from school officials.
But Tybus also has a Facebook page that he checks daily for messages
and a Treo wireless handheld that he uses to check and send e-mail.
Another
UNH freshman, Ben Parker, who is studying music education, said he
checks e-mail as many as three times a day to monitor changes in
homework or ensemble rehearsals. The school's public safety officials
also use e-mail to notify students about safety concerns. "A lot of
students here use e-mail," he said. "You have to check it for classes
and homework, so it's really important."
Still,
Parker uses texting from his phone for quick message bursts about
meeting others at a school concert, for example, and checks his
Facebook page often to stay in touch with friends, he said.
The
messaging habits of those three college students might contrast with
younger Internet users, but they also support the premise that e-mail
is not dead at all, one analyst said in an interview.
"E-mail
is not dead. Just because newer methods are growing doesn't mean the
old method of e-mail is dying. It's not a zero-sum game," said Alan
Reiter, an analyst at Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing in Chevy
Chase, Md.
Reiter sees the available
modes of communication growing as the Internet grows, and sees younger
users becoming savvy at several messaging modes, giving emphasis to one
or the other depending on their age. Eventually, they will even adopt
video messaging when the technology and pricing are within reach, he
added. "We are really entering a multimedia communications age, and
that means video," he said.
At least
one market research company, Radicati Group in Palo Alto, Calif.,
supports what Reiter and others say: that e-mail is still growing
despite growth in other messaging modes. Radicati said there are about
1.4 billion e-mail accounts globally and that number is expected to
grow by about 200 million next year and by about 800 million in 2011.
Younger teens
One
of the earliest studies of the messaging habits of young people was
done in 2005 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in
Washington, showing that nearly half of 1,100 young people aged 12 to
17 preferred chatting via instant messaging to e-mail, according to
phone surveys done in late 2004. Despite this trend, they said they
still used e-mail more than instant messaging, and Pew has not done a
comprehensive follow-up survey to track any changes.
However,
one of the Pew study's authors, Amanda Lenhart, said in an e-mail
interview that Pew has done a number of in-depth focus-group interviews
since 2005 with the 12- to 17-year-old group showing that e-mail is
still used by them for longer communication about subjects that are
complex, while IM and text "are more like conversations, better for
talking with peers." She said there is a "mix of individual
preferences" that are partly determined by the type of communication
device a teen is using.
In other
words, Lenhart indicated that younger teens seem to be similar to other
age groups in using messaging tools that fit the variety of their
communications.
Some recent market
analysis examines whether social networking communications might become
a substitute for e-mail, which would be a major concern for Internet
service providers running e-mail sites such as Hotmail and Yahoo mail.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that some Internet service
providers are starting to incorporate social network functions into
their e-mail systems to avoid losing network traffic, which is the
basis of maintaining healthy banner advertising rates.
As
recently as Nov. 6, Hitwise Intelligence in London noted that social
networks are overtaking Web mail, at least in the U.K., by a thin
margin. Hitwise said the top 25 social networks, which includes
Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, accounted for 5.17 percent of all U.K.
Internet visits by the end of September, compared with 4.98 percent for
e-mail services such as Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, and Gmail.
"This
confirms that social networks are starting to eat into the Web-based
e-mail providers' dominance of the Internet messaging market," analyst
Robin Goad wrote.
Analysts said they
don't know of similar research in the U.S., but cellular service
providers are "wising up to the new forms of communications," Reiter
said. Although U.S. wireless operators took a long time compared with
European operators to offer text messaging, they have been offering
instant messaging options for several years. New QWERTY keypads and
even the virtual keyboard on the iPhone have made typing and sometimes
"thumbing" easy for users sending short IMs or longer e-mails, he noted.
In
fact, mobile e-mail will be popular for some time even if the messages
are very short, added Tole Hart, an analyst at Gartner Inc. That's
partly because mobile e-mail can be readily recorded for long-term
storage. Recently, carriers began to offer Facebook on wireless
devices, including the BlackBerry, Reiter added. "E-mail isn't dying,
but other forms are gaining in importance," he said.
And
now, carriers are beginning to offer Facebook on wireless devices,
including the BlackBerry, Reiter added. "E-mail isn't dying, but other
forms are gaining in importance," he said.
