Email is for Old People and Other E-piphanies

Led by our students (and their younger siblings), our community is moving to another level of interaction and one that is more contemporaneous, more spontaneous. That is the genesis of this blog – it’s about communication. Another way to share ideas, less bound by the calendar and better able to meet the needs of the moment.

Several times recently I have heard or overheard that “email is for old people.” These are references no doubt to quicker, less formal communications of a generation of “millenials” that might challenge even “Gen Xers” to keep pace. We can see how instant messaging (IMing) met the initial demand for time and informality, only to have the demand for mobility push technology past the desktop and the laptop and the PDA to the all-in-one cell phone. The months ago expression of “Can you hear me now?” has been replaced by “Can you hear me, see me, read me, listen to my music download, and watch my streaming video now?” With so much sensory information (email, internet, calendar, video address book, text messages, video gaming, etc.), one can only believe that touch, taste, and smell are only a “podcast” away.

I would caution however, that while blogging constrains us less and motivates us more in our communications, let’s not forget to pick up the phone, sit and talk, extend our hand, lend a shoulder, and even send an occasional email.

See you on the blog.