The Death of Email
Email is hardly dead. However, more convenient, immediate, and more effective applications are taking over services that were formerly the exclusive role of email.
Receiving news updates via web services
- Facebook, Google News, and other news feeds give news content and updates. These services allow readers to pick and prioritize content. Rather than see the news updates in your email inbox, you see them right on the website page.
- The menu tabs and the search feature of Reddit enable readers to follow subjects that interest them. Reddit also is the best answer forum on the Internet.
- LinkedIn offers updates in its home page. However, compared to other services, LinkedIn’s news feed is an overwhelming flow of information in a service that gives the reader little opportunity to manage the content.
Communications with friends and co-workers is much easier and more effective with newer methods of communication.
- Texting is faster than emails.
- Live steaming of file sharing and file editing speeds up collaboration.
- Interactive appointment scheduling reduces the risk of misunderstanding between two people and reduces missed appointments
- Cloud-based storage eliminates the need of distributing documents as email attachments.
Email still has benefits.
Email has become such a standard of communication that users continue to rely on it for newsletters, business and personal communications, and sending personal and confidential material. Some billing services still use email.
I have a half-dozen email accounts that I established through different Internet and web hosting services. I have other emails addresses to meet multiple services through the same web applications. I am a long ways from completely giving up email. I do enjoy the alternatives to email when I find these other services convenient.