Is email dead already? My latest moment of modernity vertigo.

Ally Fogg

Exeter University students now apparently consider email too slow and unwieldy. The only possible

response is baffled wonder

I suspect I am not alone among people of a certain age in experiencing moments of modernity vertigo.

They occur unexpectedly – sudden, disconcerting realisations that the ground has shifted significantly

beneath one's feet.

Perhaps my first moment of modernity vertigo came sometime in the mid-1980s, when I caught myself

standing in front of a microwave oven shouting at it: "Come on, hurry up!" Just a few weeks ago, I felt it

again. I'd been grumbling that I couldn't get hold of a family friend because he'd lost his phone. My 12-

year-old pressed a button on the controller of his jumped-up Pong machine and spoke into it: "Hi, it's me.

My dad wants to know if you fancy a pint later." I gawped in astonishment.

This morning I read that the University of Exeter has had to employ social media operators to deal with

inquiries, because increasing numbers of students will not use email, considering it too slow and unwieldy.

Apparently, opening Outlook Express takes up valuable milliseconds that could otherwise be spent

watching Adventure Time on Netflix.

For someone of my generation, it is hard to consider this with anything other than baffled wonder.

As a student in the 80s, I was forbidden from using computers to write essays, as they were considered a

gift to cheats and plagiarists, and quite possibly the work of Beelzebub. When I started out in journalism

in the early 90s, I would either file my articles by post or, to meet pressing deadlines, phone up an editor

and read my copy down the phone while he or she typed furiously at the other end. I recall the

excitement when a shop in my neighbourhood introduced a fax machine, allowing me to print out my

masterpiece, walk half a mile to the newsagent and convert my words into those magical electronic

whistles and beeps.

It is traditional at this juncture for an old fart like me to bemoan the acceleration of our lifestyles and

insist that things were better in the more leisurely old days. In the final few months of his life, Kurt

Vonnegut wrote a beautiful essay explaining why he would not use email. He did not want, he explained,

to lose the simple pleasures of walking to the post office, buying a stamp, flirting gently with the woman

behind the counter and going about his day. He put up a convincing case, but when all is said and done, it

was bollocks. The convenience and speed of new communications has, in my case at least, served the

principal purpose of creating considerably more time for staring out of the window and watching squirrels

run along the fence. I am sure the great man would have approved.

Despite the headlines, it is likely that Sir Steve Smith, Exeter's vice-chancellor, is wrong: email is not

dead, it still serves a valuable, irreplaceable function. What is dying is the clear distinction between

different formats of electronic messaging. Just as it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate

between televisions, telephones, computers and the various gadgets that fill the gaps, so too is it

becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish an email from an SMS or an instant message from a social

media update. This convergence of technology represents a significant paradox of our age: the route to a

life of simplicity demands that we navigate increasingly complex obstacles.

The more fleet of foot among us can easily consolidate their diverse communications into one mailbox,

picking them up on whichever gadget is closest to hand. Crusty old souls like me, and bureaucratic

institutions like universities, have little choice but to shuffle along in their wake.

This is as it should be. A society that is progressing as it should, must leave behind the ways of older

generations. The occasional lurching stomach of modernity vertigo is a small price to pay for progress.

Now if you will excuse me, I think I just spotted a squirrel.

Twitterati Says Email Isn’t Dead Yet – 6 Findings

Every conference I’ve been at, and at least 10 blog posts I’ve read this year have proclaimed the death of

email.

Social network messaging, and its 1:1 relevancy and real-time immediacy will inexorably make email the

Edsel of digital communication, goes the theory.

It’s not true. Firstly, this isn’t a zero sum game. The notion that social network messaging and email are

somehow squared off like UFC combatants, throwing kicks and applying choke holds, is ridiculous. As my

friendJeff Rohrs points out, you have to have an email address to sign UP for a social network.

Further, most of my social network alerts (new followers, Linkedin messages, Facebook requests) are

delivered by email. Thus, the relationship is much more symbiotic than adversarial – for now.

It seems that the email industry has done a lot more to work cooperatively with the social media industry

than the other way around. Most major email service providers have some form of social sharing

capabilities baked into their email, and my friends at ExactTarget are publishing meaningful research on

this convergence. (See this excellent, free Webinarfrom ExactTarget and Forrester Research on email and

social media). (Disclosure: I provide social media strategy counsel to ExactTarget).

The Cool Kids Still Love Their Email

I believe social media and email are inherently similar, and that email isn’t going anywhere. But, to make

sure I wasn’t off the rails in my belief in email’s preeminence, I asked some friends.

In an incredibly unscientific fashion, I put out simple question on Twitter. “Which do you check first in

the morning: Twitter, email, voicemail?”

Within a few minutes, I had 83 replies (thanks to all), providing a fascinating data set.

Overall, 63 respondents (76%) still check email first – and this was a Twitter-only survey. Twitter was

checked first by 16 respondents, with only 4 for voicemail.

Findings that I (and hopefully you) found interesting:

It’s not really an industry, but if it were I’d be selling my voicemail stock. 4 out of 83? Not good.

Plus, several earnestly snarky comments in the “Voicemail, what’s that?” and “I just dele te all my

voicemails” category.

Also, several people mentioned that they have their voicemails transcribed and emailed to them,

which eliminates an “inbox.” I have been doing this for about 18 months, using Callwave. Results

are generally satisfactory, although fast-talkers and voicemails left in noisy places can trip up the

transcribers, with some confusing/hilarious results.

Among the small group that supported voicemail, the point was made that if someone leaves a

voicemail, it’s perhaps urgent and important. I find this getting more and more accurate every

day. My voicemail volume has consistently waned over time, and now I get very few voicemails

each day. When I do receive them they are either important, unimportant but from people that

aren’t very digital, or from people that don’t actually know me. My voicemail spam – messages left

from random sales reps and such – goes up as the messages I care about goes down. Will

voicemail become the new spam problem?

Even though it wasn’t posited as an option, 17 respondents said they checked Facebook second or

third each morning. (Nobody checks it first). Considering it was essentially a write in candidate, for

Facebook to be mentioned by more than 20% of respondents speaks to its relevancy and impact.

Among the Twitter-first crowd, several respondents mentioned that they check Twitter first

because it comes up faster on their mobile device. This is always an interesting trend – people

checking their messages on their phone before they boot up their computer. I certainly check

messages on my iphone before I open the computer, but that’s certainly something that started

fairly recently with the advent of better smartphones.

Several other interesting and humorous answers to the “Which do you check in the morning?” question.

Favorites included:

My pulse

My kids’ bedroom (just a good Mom, or possible sneak-out skullduggery?)

Text messages (2 respondents)

Linkedin (2 respondents)

RSS feeds

Coffee pot

Google Analytics

Affiliate commissions

Authority Labs (a great search engine rankings service that I use too)

My answer to my question:

1. Email 2. Twitter 3. Comments on the Convince & Convert blog

Speaking of which, what do you think about the state of messaging?

Email is dead for today's students who prefer Twitter, universities say

The Telegraph. May 2014.

Students prefer to communicate with universities via social networks such as Twitter rather than email,

which they see as outdated and slow, a leading vice-chancellor has said

The email is as good as dead among students, a leading vice-chancellor has said, as he reveals that

universities are having to employ teams to communicate via social media.

Professor Sir Steve Smith, the vice-chancellor of Exeter University, said most students no longer checked

their emails regularly and were choosing to tweet for help rather than wait for a response in their inbox.

“There is no point in emailing students any more," he told The Times."They get in touch with us by social

media, especially Twitter, and we’ve had to employ people to reply that way.

“We have a round-the-clock team of press officers and graduates savvy with social media.

“Students will tweet for help if something has gone wrong, or a prospective student will tweet a question

about the requirements for a course and expect an immediate response.”

Exeter has a team of people working in social media, including an on-call officer to respond to queries out

of office hours.

Questions sent to the university via social networks include a query about an exam timetable that would

be published later than expected. The university said it would look into the issue.

Another student voiced fears that she felt isolated within the university, and was subsequently put in

touch with a support network.

Katie Connolly, Birmingham University’s digital marketing communications manager, also said students

preferred to communicate through social media because it was faster than email.

“We have someone manning our social media channels during business hours," she said. "You can’t really

leave inquiries hanging around without a response.

"For this generation, this is a normal way of communicating and their expectations are very high. You

can’t leave things a week or two. Email is slower.”