Is email really dead?

Wall St. Journal has an interesting article on the demise of email. The growth of other digital communication channels like Twitter and Facebook have slowed the growth of email. The article rationalizes that email worked the way we used to work: logging onto the Internet and checking things; newer technologies work the way we now work: always connected via computers and mobile devices.

The article also provides a metaphor that information is like a constant stream (or river) which things are placed into. From an enterprise standpoint, I do not think email is going anywhere. The value of email is that you can schedule a time to read and answer it. Millenials might be used to instantly responding to messages and thus email is tough for them. That might work for students. But when these students get into the workplace and need an hour to write a report, they are going to find out how inconvenient it is to answer an IM or read a bunch of tweets while trying to focus on an important assignment.

Multitasking, you argue? Psychologists have proven the brain is incapable of true multitasking. We simply split our capacity among activities we are doing. This has pretty much been proven by driving behind anyone who is in a serious cell phone conversation while attempting thought-related driving maneuvers.

The article makes several assumption or omission errors. First, there is a document trail which Twitter and Facebook do not leave behind, especially important for the enterprise. Second, anything large and mature is not going to experience huge growth because it is alread large and mature, leaving it with less room to grow (duh). We saw this when e-commerce became a mature technology/industry. The article does not address the role of spam and efforts to control it on growth, either.

I think Twitter (and enterprise one-to-many technologies like yammer) will supplant some email. I think Facebook and direct messaging through Facebook will also have an effect on email growth. The value to these technologies is that they will provide a more seamless and transparent interaction between work and play. Technology has wrought a rather negative effect on the work/play relationship, possibly these communication channels can improve that relationship. But email going dead in the enterprise in favor of Twitter? Doubt it. The article has a great quote that provokes some thought,

"You can argue that because we have more ways to send more messages, we spend more time doing it."

These technologies, email included, should increase productivity. Checking multiple channels and responding to business and personal communication in real-time will not improve productivity...unless people meld their work and play together into one virtual lifestyle. Don't agree with my? Leave a comment...I'll check it when I check my email.