A recent article titled “Why Email No Longer Rules” suggests that we’ve reached the “end of the email era.” That Email is better suited to the old way of the internet. Now that we are always connected, whether from desk or mobile phone, a host of new ways to communicate has emerged that are much faster than email, and more fun.
But a recent Nielsen study actually shows that rather than killing email, social media use results in greater email use. It would appear that the people that use social media the most are also using email. The “low social media consumers” spent the least amount of minutes consuming email, compared with the “high social media consumers” consuming the most email.
This makes sense. Social media updates and notifications are often times received through email. Facebook and Twitter both send email notifications when a new comment or direct message has come in. YouTube also uses email to communicate with users. The list goes on.
The more time spent on social media seems to directly correlate with more time spent using email. Email will continue to be the go-to choice for communication outside of and within social networking. Maybe the role of email is changing, but it’s clearly not diminishing. It will be interesting to watch how email evolves in ever more dynamic, useful, and engaging ways.
