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Old 16 Sep 2016, 07:35 AM   #1
Just Bill
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Decline of email

Being an email user for many years, it's still my preferred method of communication. However, with the appearance of social networking websites, primarily Facebook, I've noticed that email has become more of a business means of communication rather than a personal one. Personally, I don't view this as a good thing but then again, I despise Facebook so my opinion may be a bit biased.

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Old 16 Sep 2016, 09:02 AM   #2
David
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I agree with most of what you say Bill; that said, email is still widely used, and will always be, imho, for as long as the Internet continues to exist, in its current form at least.
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Old 16 Sep 2016, 10:59 AM   #3
n5bb
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I agree with both of your comments. The popularity of television, motion pictures, and YouTube and other videos has led to a reduction in reading anything longer than one paragraph by many people. The difficulty with videos of vocal speech compared to writing is that it is difficult to search for content, carefully check for errors, or understand complex content. Graphic content (charts, graphs, and photographs) can help in some cases, but written text is still better (in my option) for many types of discourse.

At least Wikipedia and dictionaries are both text-based. And email is still very important, both for personal and business communication. I agree that some are moving away from email for personal communication, but the ability to send complex content to specific people is still very useful.

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Old 16 Sep 2016, 09:42 PM   #4
Zach
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Email is my preferred method too. I don't like text messages, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc as I find emails more personal. You may be interested in this article about this topic: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/st...mail.html?_r=0
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Old 17 Sep 2016, 03:28 AM   #5
petergh
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I'm somewhere in between the group of (mostly young) people who have an email address only because they're required to have one in order to receive password reset emails, boring notes from their teacher, and perhaps the bi-annual long letter from their grandmother (to which they're inclined never to reply), and the group who prefer email above anything else, and perhaps even use their phone as - gasp! - a telephone!

Coincidentally, I'm also in between those two groups age-wise, and I think that has something to do with it. I was 18 the first time I connected to the Internet, so I have a clear memory of the days before the (widespread) Internet, but I'm also young enough to have adapted to the new way of things where so many things happen on computers that used to be done in the physical world.

Maybe that's the reason I like both email and instant messaging. I engage in epistulary email-writing with a few select friends regularly, and everyday chit-chat with a substantially larger group of friends via instant messaging. I prefer instant messaging to phone calls in most situations, because it's more private in a public space like the bus, and also I don't disturb everyone around me like I would do if I were talking on the phone.

I refrained from using FB Messenger for a very long time, because I didn't (and don't) like Facebook per se, but when they separated Messenger from Facebook I found it much easier to engange with my friends regularly through there than through email, and I wouldn't have to look at photos of their cats and what they had for dinner last night.
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Old 17 Sep 2016, 08:31 AM   #6
pjwalsh
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Thread could have been titled 'Decline of writing'.. or 'Decline of thinking'.
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Old 17 Sep 2016, 08:57 AM   #7
David
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pjwalsh View Post
Thread could have been titled 'Decline of writing'.. or 'Decline of thinking'.
But then we would all feel guilty about using email at all......
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Old 17 Sep 2016, 10:07 AM   #8
somdcomputerguy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pjwalsh View Post
Thread could have been titled 'Decline of writing'.. or 'Decline of thinking'.
Quote:
Originally Posted by David View Post
But then we would all feel guilty about using email at all......
Well then email is to me, preferably, my most often acted upon sin..

Last edited by somdcomputerguy : 19 Sep 2016 at 12:54 PM.
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Old 18 Sep 2016, 01:54 AM   #9
beeboy
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I agree with the OP. Like snail mail, email is fading away.

Most people are phoning, texting, video chatting, or using social media like facebook, twitter, etc.

We can blame this on smart phones. Everyone has one. Kids are growing up with them.

Technology for you. What's going to make the smart phone obsolete?

Take a look at this place. It was buzzing about email in its hayday. Now its very quiet. The decline of forums overall is partly to blame as well.
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Old 18 Sep 2016, 02:06 AM   #10
William9
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It'a different if you work for a large corporation. Most business outside of in-person meetings takes place with email conversations.
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Old 18 Sep 2016, 05:42 AM   #11
petergh
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I agree with both sentiments: email is used less for personal communication than in previous years, and email is still is a cornerstone of business communications. I think one of the reasons email is used by businesses still is *control*. You may have your email hosted in the cloud, but you're probably still able to back up your entire mail archive which is a requirement in some areas of business.

That's one of the reasons I like email as well. I have email messages going back to the mid-90's because I've been able to transfer them between various email hosts over the years. Who knows what will happen to messages sent via Facebook, Twitter, or Snapchat in twenty years from now? I have no way (that I know of) to create a backup of those messages.
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Old 18 Sep 2016, 10:17 PM   #12
Dutchie007
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From what I notice in my life is that MOST people (especialy younger ones) do NOT use email anymore. Mostly they prefer whatsapp,Viber,Skype or the FB messenger. I even saw this with some companies. True...in larger companies email still plays an important role.

However here in germany i still see that many copmpanies still use written letters and/or fax!!! When I moved here in 2014 I was realy surprised that they still use the fax. I personaly do not like to use the fax because i think its obsolete now in 2016. You can do wunderfull things with a scanner/modern smartphone and email:-)

I myself am addicted to email:-) But I am from the old guard.

Dutchie.
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Old 18 Sep 2016, 11:12 PM   #13
Just Bill
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I've also noticed a sharp decline in the use of PGP. Sharp as in I know of essentially no one that uses it anymore.
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Old 19 Sep 2016, 02:10 AM   #14
David
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Just Bill View Post
I've also noticed a sharp decline in the use of PGP. Sharp as in I know of essentially no one that uses it anymore.
I suspect that those who use (and need) PGP do not ever tell anyone else about it
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Old 19 Sep 2016, 02:52 AM   #15
Zach
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dutchie007 View Post
From what I notice in my life is that MOST people (especialy younger ones) do NOT use email anymore. Mostly they prefer whatsapp,Viber,Skype or the FB messenger. I even saw this with some companies. True...in larger companies email still plays an important role.
I'm in my 20s and don't use WhatsApp, Viber or Facebook at all (I don't even know what Viber is). I used to have a Facebook account but closed it for many reasons, including dislike of the superficial conversations and the time-wasting. As for email: I love it - my favourite method of communication. I realise that this makes me eccentric for my age - literally no one I know who is my age uses email like I do (they all only have email addresses because they're obliged to as a means of signing up for online services). I find it so personal and meaningful compared to the other aforementioned channels.

Last edited by Zach : 19 Sep 2016 at 03:05 AM. Reason: Typo
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