Ready to Start Your Career?
By: Tatianna
September 14, 2016
What is happening with technology?
By: Tatianna
September 14, 2016
In a day and age where everything is online, it makes sense to use email; but why is it “a dying media”? Before I answer this question, have you ever wondered why people don’t use email? Well, one reason is all the junk or “spam” as people call it. No, not the food popular in American culture, but the kind literally NO ONE wants to take a bite of.
[insert_vertical_space the_pixels="20"][clear]
The second, not as obvious reason, is that it can be a bit inconvenient to use. I mean, with everything on phones and other mobile devices, email can get pushed to the way-side and easily forgotten. AND (here comes reason three), there are so many better alternatives to email, of which a few will be mentioned later.Now, back on topic… Email is a vital part of today’s business communication, and it is integrated into many facets of our lives. Let’s elaborate on this for a moment.Stores still send out emails with their weekly deals for coupon savings, and other companies use it for product promotion, knowledge syndication, and just general communication with customers.So again we ask, why email? Well, unlike other forms of communication, there seems to be infinite possibilities with emails – they can be used for more than just traditional means of company/consumer communication. As you may notice on company social media feeds, near instant communication can occur; however, it’s limited and public! Well, emails offer a more personal touch and a one-on-one feel for individuals and consumers to engage with a company in a multitude of ways. Companies handle technical support problems with email, they notify members and customers of website outages or company maintenance/closures, and files can be shared with a multitude of people at once.Now, here comes the big BUT… Email is a few decades old now, and there are way “better” (and I use quotation marks to put this lightly) ways of communication.For instance, if you want to talk to someone right now, you have several options:
Remember these?
[insert_vertical_space the_pixels="20"][clear]
The increasing need for online multi-channel communication is a hard to swallow fact for many, thus email is struggling to survive. The real question is, should it just be left to die? According to studies done on App usage, with newer generations being introduced to technology younger and younger, they use less older “traditional” media channels.
Major companies such as Google, Yahoo, MSN (Hotmail), and even Microsoft are now thinking up new ways to meet the needs of not only the every-day person but also the corporate individual – the business man or woman – and the younger generations who use them for extended periods of time. Granted, they are still improving how email works, but there are no real revolutionary strides being made in email. Even the co-founder of Asana, Justin Rosenstein said that email has reached its peak, and noted that email can be more distracting, and uncoordinated than instant messaging services or social applications. In today’s modern world, time is money, money is key, and efficiency is the King ruling over the land dictating how it all flows. [Think about it – what media channel do you prefer?][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400"]
Can we say, "impatient"?[/caption] So, whether you are a business person, home-body, hacker/cracker, school teacher, teenager, or … whoever, the world of technology and how it integrates with our daily lives is continually changing. What do you do? What should you do? Stop and think – We’ll have to wait and see what the future of individual communication, business, security, and technology hold for email, but it’s not going anywhere for now. It is still a useful media after decades of use, but with technology anything can change [and blow your mind!] in the drop of a hat. The evolution of things is constant, so hold on to your hats as we wait and see what happens in the coming decade, not only with our forms of communication, but how we gain and share knowledge and data, and try to remember what life was like before the all-consuming IoT.
[insert_vertical_space the_pixels="20"][clear]The second, not as obvious reason, is that it can be a bit inconvenient to use. I mean, with everything on phones and other mobile devices, email can get pushed to the way-side and easily forgotten. AND (here comes reason three), there are so many better alternatives to email, of which a few will be mentioned later.Now, back on topic… Email is a vital part of today’s business communication, and it is integrated into many facets of our lives. Let’s elaborate on this for a moment.Stores still send out emails with their weekly deals for coupon savings, and other companies use it for product promotion, knowledge syndication, and just general communication with customers.So again we ask, why email? Well, unlike other forms of communication, there seems to be infinite possibilities with emails – they can be used for more than just traditional means of company/consumer communication. As you may notice on company social media feeds, near instant communication can occur; however, it’s limited and public! Well, emails offer a more personal touch and a one-on-one feel for individuals and consumers to engage with a company in a multitude of ways. Companies handle technical support problems with email, they notify members and customers of website outages or company maintenance/closures, and files can be shared with a multitude of people at once.Now, here comes the big BUT… Email is a few decades old now, and there are way “better” (and I use quotation marks to put this lightly) ways of communication.For instance, if you want to talk to someone right now, you have several options:
- Talk on the phone
- Use a video call (ie. Skype, Tango, Google hangout, etc.)
- Social media (tweets, posts, snaps, videos, chats)
- Instant messaging (SMS, MMS, Google, Lync, Slack, etc.)
- Text messaging is included in this category
- Some other stuff … yadda yadda yadda….
- …..
- ….
- …
- And all the way down here – email.
Remember these?
[insert_vertical_space the_pixels="20"][clear]The increasing need for online multi-channel communication is a hard to swallow fact for many, thus email is struggling to survive. The real question is, should it just be left to die? According to studies done on App usage, with newer generations being introduced to technology younger and younger, they use less older “traditional” media channels.
Major companies such as Google, Yahoo, MSN (Hotmail), and even Microsoft are now thinking up new ways to meet the needs of not only the every-day person but also the corporate individual – the business man or woman – and the younger generations who use them for extended periods of time. Granted, they are still improving how email works, but there are no real revolutionary strides being made in email. Even the co-founder of Asana, Justin Rosenstein said that email has reached its peak, and noted that email can be more distracting, and uncoordinated than instant messaging services or social applications. In today’s modern world, time is money, money is key, and efficiency is the King ruling over the land dictating how it all flows. [Think about it – what media channel do you prefer?][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Can we say, "impatient"?[/caption] So, whether you are a business person, home-body, hacker/cracker, school teacher, teenager, or … whoever, the world of technology and how it integrates with our daily lives is continually changing. What do you do? What should you do? Stop and think – We’ll have to wait and see what the future of individual communication, business, security, and technology hold for email, but it’s not going anywhere for now. It is still a useful media after decades of use, but with technology anything can change [and blow your mind!] in the drop of a hat. The evolution of things is constant, so hold on to your hats as we wait and see what happens in the coming decade, not only with our forms of communication, but how we gain and share knowledge and data, and try to remember what life was like before the all-consuming IoT.