- Email turns into “grey mail” as young digerati move to new communication methods
17th November 2009: Email could die out as busy younger internet users develop a preference for shorter “one and done”-style messages – such as tweets and IM – that reach larger numbers of people in one fell swoop.
That’s the prediction of TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk), the biggest provider of broadband to Britain’s homes, which even reckons email extinction could arrive in the next 10 years.
It conducted research of Britain’s internet habits with a social anthropologist from the University of Kent. The research found that Britain has over 2 million “First Lifers” – those in their late teens or early 20s – who are tech savvy but don’t like being stuck at a desk.
For First Lifers, email is going out of style – and fast. Barely half (51%) regularly use email anymore, with many young people instead opting for shorter communications like Twitter and Facebook updates to keep in the loop, supplemented by text messages, instant messaging when they’re out and about. They prefer these technologies as they enable them to contact whole groups of friends rather than individuals one at a time.
Interestingly it is the older generations that are now more likely to use email than any other group (98% of people aged 65+, 96% of 45-64 year-olds Vs. 87% of 25-34 year-olds, 86% of 15-24 year-olds) – showing that email is turning into “grey mail.”
Mark Schmid from TalkTalk said: “Email has been the dominant mode of communication over the internet for the past 20 years, but that doesn’t mean it always will be. Increasingly people want to send quick, short messages reaching many people in one go, and there are now better ways of doing that than via email. Based on the trends we’re seeing now, email could well be on its last legs by the end of the next decade.”