Last year, I came across a report that analyzed the ways various generations use online communication tools [pdf]. The study concludes that email is something mostly used by generation x and older. Current teenagers view email as something more formal and don’t tend to use it as much for casual conversation.

Sorry, here is the direct link to the study about generational differences in usage of email, messaging and cell phones.

Josh, back in the dark ages, I recall going to great lengths just to get a named email account. I didn’t much like being gt3070b@gatech.edu. I wanted to be jeff@cc.gatech.edu (where cc is college of computing).

But I can’t imagine having to set up an account with a separate service just to email my daughter (`course, she can’t read yet).

Of course, within those .edu e-mail addresses, the freshman coming in won’t be able to sign up for Facebook

So, what we really need is a messaging proxy. I send an email to my daughter’s on-line identity, which forwards it in the form of a message to her (not-yet-existing) MySpace account. She replies, and my on-line identity forwards it to the IRC channel I’m in.

Combine context and presence with generic messaging. What a platform.

As a Michigan State MBA student with a Facebook account, I am discouraged that MSU would even consider phasing out of school email accounts. A large majority of college students may be part of a social network, but in my experience email message capabilities, including attachments, signatures, etc., in social networks are incomparable to the current school email accounts. Additionally, “Bill” (who I am unaware of) uses Facebook as his example but doesn’t take into account that a school email is required to join Facebook. Not to mention most social networks send notifications via current email, which shows that the intention behind social networking is not to cannibalize email accounts. I suggest that MSU should think long and hard before following through with such considerations.

Will, “consider” was my word. In the conversation that Bill and I had, I think he said “they’re talking about it”.

I wouldn’t worry just yet, but I found it really interesting that it is a topic of discussion.

And, as you point out, having a .edu is necessary to sign up for some services…that’s a wrinkle to say the least…

Whew! What a rollicking conversation!

Ok..some clarity here:

First, the study that the 94% figure came from, it should be mentioned, found this number in a sample of undergraduates. It is not truly accurate to say that 94% of the student body uses Facebook, just 94% of the folks who responded to the survey.

And Josh’s clarification, re: supporting student e-mails is accurate. There are no plans for MSU to stop supporting e-mail…but the question has been asked around the table by the Computer Systems and Communications Advisory Committee, at what point might it make sense to stop?

More to the point of Josh’s post, though, is that a generational shift in the way various communication options/channels are deployed by users is something we might pay more attention to as designers. The aforementioned study gives us some indications that Facebook use is a good indicator of an ability to build and maintain social capital, carrying over from face-to-face situations. In other words, Facebook is scratching some itches that have previously gone unscratched.

The part that Universities might pay more attention to is the finding about “bridging.” Facebook users felt more a part of the MSU community.

Lets face it, a whole lot of people send emails back and forth as if they are chatroom messages. I think younger people have realized that for small trivial conversations (of which the majority are) email isn’t very good and there are better options.

I’m not sure email will ever become obsolete. But I think the days of people ping-ponging 15 emails back and forth as they hash out a discussion, should rightfully become a thing of the past.

Frightening.

“You need a MySpace account to message me” sounds an awful lot like the bad old days of online service providers who didn’t provide Internet access. MySpace should be the good guy here, and provide a MySpace – e-mail bridge, like U.S. mobile phone providers do for e-mail.

Thanks for the link to the study, Bill. Here are a couple of relevant data points:

* A total of 286 students completed the online survey, yielding a response rate of 35.8%

* Mean time spent on Facebook per week – 10 to 30 minutes

Generally, I agree that there’s an important shift happening with social network use, and this study does have interesting data about how students communicate with Facebook (e.g. see table 3).

But there is some serious conclusion-jumping going on in this post.

Gene, yes, I completely jumped the gun on the statistic…from my initial conversation with Bill I thought it was over the complete campus. I’m glad he came and set me straight. And given that it was an optional questionnaire, well that really skews the numbers.

While the conclusion that social networks are killing email is weakened by this, I still maintain that we’re seeing a strong trend toward conversations happening within software other than an email app.

I would argue that the actual problem is a proliferation of e-mail addresses that has been known for a long time. Back when i was a student i used to have one e-mail account/address for each educational institution i was attending plus separate e-mail adresses in companies where i worked part time. People could not be certain that they coudl reach me, and the amount of spam i received was manyfold.

A better solution that people naturally tend to opt for is to have a primary e-mail account somewhere.

Part of the proliferation is due to security, companies dont want e-mail stored outside their firewall boundries. An other part seems to be that e-mail addresses has become an identity token, identifying you as part of an organisation.

There should be some better solution that will let individuals retain their own e-mail address all life.

A. A.

This is a point I’ve tried to make to nonprofits I work with – one key reason for engaging in MySpace, for example, is that it’s the new email. If you want to communicate with young constituents, that’s a great way to do it.

Now we’ll see if this can scale – do social network users want to get any messages in these accounts as everyone gets in email? And spam is already a problem. Give me an app that applies GMail quality spam filtering to MySpace messages and I’ll be happy.

I’m not ready to throw in the towel yet. It’s going to be a long time before social networking can kill email for professional and business use. What about the parents who don’t have access to Facebook, or can’t figure out MySpace? Until someone asks me to contact them via MySpace instead of email I’m not convinced.

I am 15 I have a myspace I was one of the first kids in my area to have a myspace.But i still use E-mail and 99.99% of all the kids from school i know use E-mail. Myspace Will not let you E-mail others that dont have a myspace Account. So i don’t even use myspace E-mail. I have my E-mail set to Away. I have 9 E-mail Accounts on the Web. all opticaldreamer12’s And i like using there E-mails better than myspace because you can send all the E-mails you want. And myspace Limits you. I am on the computer all the time. And send out and receive more E-mails than i can read. All the new stuff that Microsoft is making Like Microsoft Desk Top Beta makes it easy to get to your E-mails. And more Convenient for me. The only thing social Networking sites are doing Is lowering our grades. because as soon and I get home. I go right to myspace and Read E-mails. I am looking for other online social networking sites at the time. And i just wanted to stop by and put my 2cents in that your a little off track. Myspace is slowing down now (cooling off) Because i have been noticing the 1 million members a day go down dramatically. It is the new world Just got to learn to deal with it.

From ya boy,
Justin
*(AKA) Jay

Houston, Texas
Student
July,26,2006

Don’t discount the importance of email. For a significant number of people it remains the primary reason for logging on. Teenagers may well be preocuppied with social networking, but for everyone else email is likely to remain the chosen method of online communication for some time.

Can students use MySpace accounts to send cover letters and resumes for job applications requesting attached resumes? (Serious question – I just watched my recently graduated son live with regular email for months while he got his first post graduation job.)

You’re never going to see a discontinuation of email use, for the simple fact that people will still want to correspond with others privately without tipping them off to their community sites. You have an increasing number of employers checking up on prospective clients via facebook and myspace, I think some people will keep their accounts under wraps at times and stick to plain email correspondence. Five years from now when everyone has 10,000 people on their friends list, they won’t even bother reading their mail.

If we consider txt-messages over cellphones a type of email, then social networks aren’t even close to matching global email usage numbers. Some PC based email clients are being replaced by cellphones and other devices but email will most likely continue to raise.

Students are online all the time and messaging through other.

hi i am 15. i totally dont think that u r right. many of us teenagers still use hotmail.. email whatever. not ALL of us use blog mail … i dont and many of my friends dont .. are you critising blogging? if u r , why dont u just freaking leave us alone!

This is a point I have tried to make to nonprofits – one reason for engaging in MySpace is that it’s the new e-mail. If you want to communicate with youngsters, it’s a great way.

I use email-accounts, only.

I would think that more than 50% of the population by now is a member of some kind of social networking site. Even my mom belongs to one haha

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I only use email-accounts too.

interesting article, found out some interesting facts.

Thanx for this very useful and informative article, nice work!

I still maintain that we’re seeing a strong trend toward conversations happening within software other than an email app.

Another great and very informative article, thanks.

“I wouldn’t worry just yet, but I found it really interesting that it is a topic of discussion.”
I think so too, but I like discussions like this.

Myspace Will not let you E-mail others that dont have a myspace Account. So many people can´t use Myspace.

It’s going to be a long time before social networking can kill email for either professional and/or business use. What about the parents who don’t have access to Facebook or can’t figure out MySpace ?

Thanks for very interesting article. btw. I really enjoyed reading all of your posts. It’s interesting to read ideas, and observations from someone else’s point of view… makes you think more. So please keep up the great work. Greetings.

I can honestly say that I havent used email in years and that I just send a message on facebook if I want to contact somebody.

This post ist very helpful. Thanks a lot. Not all features of social network communities are great. Greetings geldboerse