Last week, I found myself driving my 12-year-old to what felt like her hundredth dance class while simultaneously leaving a voicemail for a friend. Multi-tasking at its finest! “Hey, it’s me. Just saw your email. Call me back.” I kept it short and to the point.
Suddenly, laughter erupted from the backseat. “What’s so funny?” I adjusted the rearview mirror only to see my daughter glued to her phone, likely engrossed in a group chat or the latest viral video. “Ugh, Mom!” she exclaimed, finally looking up. “Only old people use email!”
And that’s the reality check I didn’t see coming.
I vividly recall my first email account back in 1994 when I graduated from journalism school and landed my first job as an editor at a sports magazine. Email was a revolutionary tool back then, and we eagerly exchanged messages with colleagues and a few friends lucky enough to have email access. It was our lifeline for chatting about last night’s episode of Melrose Place or coordinating after-work outings. If your workplace didn’t have it, you were pretty much out of luck.
Fast forward to today, and email feels more like a burden. Years of subscribing to newsletters and promotions have cluttered my inbox with over 10,000 unread messages—updates I don’t care about and reminders for events I won’t attend. Sifting through them to find one important email is a tedious chore I dread. Click open inbox, scroll endlessly, sigh, and close.
It seems I’m not alone. An article by John Rivera in Inc. suggests that email may become obsolete by 2020. “There are already signs that businesses are shifting away from email as a primary communication method,” he notes. With numerous alternatives like text messaging, Twitter DMs, and Facebook notes, the old standby is becoming a black hole of confusion. Responses are slow, discussions spiral into chaos, and spam filters are overly aggressive. By 2020, it seems inevitable that someone will develop a more efficient way to communicate.
Could that “someone” be our children? My kids, aged 12 and 9, have already figured out that texting or using social media platforms like Snapchat is far more immediate than emailing. Even workplaces are adapting, with many adopting tools like Slack for streamlined communication. Is this the new normal? Are we clinging to email simply because we grew up with it, and now that we’re “older,” we resist change?
When my kids were born, I was proactive in securing them Gmail addresses using their first and middle names—how clever I thought at the time! Now, I’m left wondering if they’ll ever even use them.
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In summary, as technology evolves, so too does our communication. While email was once the pinnacle of digital correspondence, younger generations are steering toward quicker and more efficient methods. Are we ready to embrace this shift, or will we continue to hold on to old habits?