Now, this is a bold question I know, however the reason I am blogging on this topic is because I believe it may just be true. In recent years a plethora of alternative methods for communicating on a personal level have appeared. All of these communication methods are superior to email for one reason, and one reason alone; you have complete control over who sends you messages. And this means one thing. No spam!
Facebook alone provides a number of different ways to communicate on a personal level: Wall posts, private messages, Facebook group messages and comments to name but a few. Similarly Twitter, Bebo, MySpace etc all have their own approaches to personal messaging.
If I were to ask you how many personal Facebook messages you had sent over the last week, would it outnumber the number of personal emails you had sent? In my case it definitely has. The difference is enormous, and it has been for some time. For me, and no doubt millions of other people across the globe, Facebook has become the primary method of interacting and communicating with my friends and family.
Sadly, my personal email address has become nothing more than a tool for receiving Facebook confirmations and online purchase receipts for things like EBay and Bleep.com. Many of these emails I do not even read unless I have to.
Don't get me wrong, email is still a vital medium for communication, especially in the business world, and I'm not going to stop using it any time soon, however it seems the days of people emailing me the latest news from their World travels or trying to arrange a night out are simply gone.
I wonder how it will be before social networking starts to take over business communication too?
[photo courtesy of Kodomut]
