Lots of stories now about how email is obsolete and dumb because it’s only used by people 55 and older. Email providers are consequently wildly jerking their knees to change their products so as not to look “out of touch.” But if you check the chart, you see that the numbers are skewed very young. So the people who are using text or something other than email are children or underemployed college-age folks and perhaps stay-at-home parents. They apparently text because Mom, Dad or someone else is paying for it and they have time on their hands.
As anyone who is a mature adult with a job knows, email is virtually indispensible as a business communications tool. I have clients in other parts of the world who I can’t communicate with efficiently or effectively by phone or text because of cost and time zone differences. I also use, text, phone (remember that?) and social networking to stay in touch with my clients, friends, and family. But I like email for business and my clients prefer it.
I have several different email accounts but I don’t use Yahoo, Google, or other mass freebies because they’re not secure and are prone to crashes. My email is fast, secure, versatile, and most important, I have control of it- unlike texting which requires almost constant supervision and participation to work. I don’t have that kind of time. I have a job.
So I imagine email providers will start changing to conform to these new studies and articles and the growing dictatorship of the whiny, spoiled, idle, and entitled American child. Texting creates an even greater revenue flow for texting services which are expensive for the user compared to email. So more companies will try to get in the game at the expense of email or other valuable services. Again, kids don’t care about cost: it’s free if someone else pays for it, right?
For a country in the throes of a recession, we sure don’t act like it. Maybe if we used email more, we’d have more money and do more business. Unlike texting, the point of which seems to be teens transmitting naked pictures of themselves and killing time at family get-togethers. I wonder what these people would find if they actually stopped staring at their smartphones and looked up at the world around them. Maybe a life?
